Life Has Its Irritations
Jury duty is over, and I am relieved to report that we finally decided to tell the judge we couldn't come to agreement on one of the charges, as he accepted that and declared a mistrial on that one. We were agreed on a Not Guilty verdict for the other charge, not because we were convinced of the defendant's innocence, but because we didn't think the prosecutor proved her case beyond a reasonable doubt. I will say that the experience, while for the most part extremely boring (how many times can the same information be repeated? and at the same time how much information that you would like to have isn't presented?), gave me more faith in trial by jury. I can't say it gave me more faith in the justice system as a whole or in the skills of lawyers. Neither the prosecutor nor the defense lawyer struck me as either experienced or very articulate. Ultimately the defense lawyer won out by saying very little.
Since the charges related to possession of meth and paraphernalia, we all had the opportunity to remark on the severity of the American methamphetamine problem and on the excessive harshness of drug possession laws in this country. While the jury didn't come to agreement on one of the charges, I was very favorably impressed with everyone in the group's intelligence, clarity, and desire to carry out the law correctly.
Upon returning home, I set myself to the problem of setting up the new laptop, which arrived late yesterday and which is being nothing but trouble to make usable. I can't get it to log onto Compuserve, so although it will dial, I can't do anything online on it like update or register programs. There seem to be a lot of settings that I can't figure out, possibly because I'm dealing with three hard drives. It is somewhat nightmarish.
The rabbits have not had any more fights, but this is because we have kept them far enough apart that they can't bite each other. Ms. Spots loves to recline in front of Cami's cage, so there is usually a vision of deceptive calm. At the moment, Ms. Spots is confined to the living room and Cami is having an episode of free-range activity, ie on the rug in front of her cage. And Ms. Spots is about to receive her evening yogurt, which should cause a brief dance of joy.
Since the charges related to possession of meth and paraphernalia, we all had the opportunity to remark on the severity of the American methamphetamine problem and on the excessive harshness of drug possession laws in this country. While the jury didn't come to agreement on one of the charges, I was very favorably impressed with everyone in the group's intelligence, clarity, and desire to carry out the law correctly.
Upon returning home, I set myself to the problem of setting up the new laptop, which arrived late yesterday and which is being nothing but trouble to make usable. I can't get it to log onto Compuserve, so although it will dial, I can't do anything online on it like update or register programs. There seem to be a lot of settings that I can't figure out, possibly because I'm dealing with three hard drives. It is somewhat nightmarish.
The rabbits have not had any more fights, but this is because we have kept them far enough apart that they can't bite each other. Ms. Spots loves to recline in front of Cami's cage, so there is usually a vision of deceptive calm. At the moment, Ms. Spots is confined to the living room and Cami is having an episode of free-range activity, ie on the rug in front of her cage. And Ms. Spots is about to receive her evening yogurt, which should cause a brief dance of joy.
posted by Karla at 4:39 AM
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