Monday, May 3, 2010

Civic Duty

So, some of you might be wondering why it has been so quiet here the last week or so.



Very plainly, I've been performing my civic duty for the government. For the last few months I've been in a jury pool. Two weeks ago I was called to be part of a smaller pool for the trial of a highly publicized case. The attorneys selected me to be a part of the trial jury.

So, for the last two weeks I've been hearing testimony and then deliberating with my fellow jurors. During the trial the judge reminded us not to read the news reports, to shy away from all media concerning the issue. To do so, I felt I should avoid the computer as much as I could.

We returned our verdicts. The case is still a bit in limbo, for the judge ruled a mistrial on the one count that we were deadlocked on. The prosecution has not yet determined if they will retry the defendant on that charge. The judge will hand down sentencing at a later date.

Until these items are resolved, I've determined that I won't publicly speak about the details of the case. The decisions that I made during the deliberations were not easy to reach but I can sleep well at night knowing that I did my best.

Also, my daughter's pacemaker stopped functioning last week. It was quickly resolved and she now has a new, improved model. She has mostly recovered from the surgery and will be out of school another week.

And she turned six. Family came in from around the country and she enjoyed every minute of her party. Happy Birthday, Caroline.

So, all that to say I hope to resume (semi)regular postings again. And I'm sorry that I haven't been out reading and commenting as much as I would have liked.

8 comments:

  1. No probs man, sounds like you have way more important things to worry about. Hope all is well.

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  2. Glad to see that things are better family-wise. Give Caroline a big birthday hug from the interwebs (this should typically be avoided, but in this case you are okay. I recently ran a virus scan on my pc. :)

    You weren't on THAT jury were you??? Sweet! (Nice use of mt "Invention of Email" card, BTW. I knew that would come in handy.)

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  3. Speaking as the "Jury Widow," yes, indeedy, it was THAT jury.

    .....we're all glad to have him home again!

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  4. WOW! You've had a lot going on! Give Caroline a hug from all of us.

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  5. I had jury duty for the first this past year and it was an eye-opening experience. Unfortunately, despite the entire jury knowing the guy was guilty, we had to let him off because of lack of evidence. So it was bittersweet.

    Anyway! Glad all else is well, considering!

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  6. If you give them the impression that you cannot be fair, then they will not pick you for a jury. Seriously though, thank you for serving.

    Glad to hear Caroline is feeling better and enjoyed her birthday.

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  7. Greg - she LOVED her birthday. . . and the get-well present was a HUGE hit!!

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