I completed jury duty today. It was interesting to watch how the ordinary wheels of justice turn - while the specialized wheels for Libby were turning in Wash, D.C. If Justice had suddenly taken off her blindfold in our nation's capitol and peeked at the answer key for the correct result, was that happening in the rest of the country - in my own little county courthouse? And why do I feel like it doesn't matter anyway?
As I sat in the jury box after being called from the pool this past Tuesday, I recognized the judge as our former county district attorney. I had voted for him to become judge. The defendant was represented by a public defender, whose body language indicated to my fellow jury members that she thought her client was probably guilty. But her job was to win the case. By the end of the week, she did - by asking that the case be dismissed. It was odd to watch her during the trial - she seemed to actually be coaching the district attorney to do a better job.
The district attorney was clearly new at his job and had not picked up well where the judge had left off. He was very likeable, calm, clear, and nervous. The nervous part was revealed by the time it took for him to recover from any setback. Setbacks were easily defined as anything which didn't occur the way he thought it would. These always produced several minutes of contemplation and a bunch of notes on his legal pad. It was a long couple of days in the jury box. I drew lots of doodles on my note pad too. I was very surprised to have a notepad. The judge said we could take notes - I think I was the only juror to continue taking notes after 5 minutes. It helped me stay awake during setbacks.
Given that the defense attorney seemed to think her client was guilty, it was a cinch that the jury did, too. This was obvious as we chatted afterwards. Several of us thought the defendant was guilty but we didn't want to convict her regardless. The crime was really too small. In this case, the state was trying to prove that an individual intended to defraud a car dealership based on bad checks received as payment from accounts which had no funds. The dealership repo'ed the cars and resold them as new. What's the big deal?
One juror wag said that it wasn't a case of David vs. Goliath (clearly the rich car dealership plus the might of the State was Goliath) but rather it was David vs. Idiot. The defendant was acquitted because the state hadn't proved the basic case in the indictment. After the State rested its case, the defense attorney requested that the case be dismissed. The judge did so immediately. The district attorney thought he had an open and shut case. He did. He just forgot to present part of into evidence. Dingbat. (Hint for any DAs reading this - be sure to have the police go ahead and get those bank records for you like they offered to, so you can actually show that there was no money there and that the account was already closed. Otherwise, all you have for the jury is returned checks with big red 'Account Closed' messages on them which the judge has to order the jurors to IGNORE.)
Although I spent a couple days doodling my time away in the jury box, I'm not unhappy with the way the trial turned out. Strangely, it seemed a fair enough result. The car dealership got their day in court - the police and the state took action in a case where a customer seemingly tried to steal from them. The guilty party has had her name dragged through the mud and won't be able to transact fraudulent business in our town again. She's endured a year's harrassment and a jury trial - believe me when I say I understand what it's like to have strangers hearing all about your affairs in court and it's not fun whatever your intentions were. And the jury - we didn't have to agonize over whether it was really right to convict someone over such a petty issue which should have been resolved before we ever saw it (i.e. plea bargain or civil action to recover the repo charges). I wasn't the only juror to wonder why we were spending taxpayer money on this.
And I couldn't help feeling at the end of the trial that it really didn't matter anyway. Why are we bothering to even consider wasting our collective time and money on these tiny, petty issues. So this little criminal or that one goes free. Who cares? Their crimes are so trivial compared to BushCheneyLibbyGonzalesEtc and the consequences are meaningless in the backdrop of IraqPlamegateUSAfiringsCagingRATS...
My county judge concluded the trial by stating that whether or not the defendant is guilty, the case is dismissed because we have to follow the rule of law. Like Krugman said, the law is for the little people. The real criminals in this corporatocracy are getting away with the rape of our country and the desecration of the constitution. And the folks we've elected to get us out of this mess are standing well back from the stench and holding their delicate noses hoping it will all go away by itself in a couple years. Don't count on it, ladies. Weren't you the ones promising to drain this swamp?
The fraudulent check-kiter in this case didn't bother me at all. She's guilty. Let her go. I didn't use to feel that way - I know I didn't. I used to be the type of person who thought that every criminal should pay their debt to society. Everyone needs to respect the rules. Now, it seems not to matter. Did she just get into a bind? Did she really intend to steal? Who cares?