Jury Duty!

I got called for jury duty way back in March or so, but with a deferment or two and travel plans, I finally got the assignment to go in on Tuesday. It has been well over a decade since I've been called, let alone served, so was looking forward to it.

I rarely get downtown much where the courts are, and now we have a new way to get downtown - the "modern" streetcar! I can park for free on campus, then take the streetcar downtown and ultimately save on parking downtown. So for the second streetcar ride of my life, I paid $4.50 for a round ticket and headed out early Tuesday (assigned a 7:30am start)! The streetcar is shown at left...

After an uneventful ride in, I had plenty of time to spare to check-in at the jury assembly room. Shown at right, turns out I was not supposed to take photos, but no one can likely be recognized, so don't tell anyone! After watching the orientation video, I immediately got called to go to "city court" a few blocks away, escorted by court officials...

Of course, I got called into the dozen members of the pool who got to be interviewed about employment, jury experience (I had by far the most experience at 4 juries!), bumper stickers. magazine and favorite TV shows... We were told it was a DUI case, and several were excused because of law-enforcement connections, having taken law classes, schedule conflicts, and a few other excuses. After a brief break where the attorneys chose the jurors they wanted, Me and 6 women got picked for the trial! After a 90 minute lunch break, we were to reconvene and the trial would start.

With my successful maneuvering of the streetcar system, I had heard seniors (that's me!) could get an ID card that allows them to ride for $0.75 per ride. The office was only 2 blocks away, so dropped in at my lunch break. There was a huge crowd - over 20 ahead of me, so with number in hand went to a Mexican place around the corner for a snack. By the time I got back there were still 10 ahead of me, but most had given up, so my number was soon called. I'm now official with a real card, refillable from logging in online!

So the trial got under way. It was only supposed to last 2 days, so would make my dentist appointment on Thursday... The jist of the case was that the defendant had been caught speeding by a motorcycle policeman at 12:30am way back in August of '17, over 18 months ago. He had been caught going 46 mph in a 25 zone, and once stopped, showed symptoms of consuming alcohol. Once out of the car, the officer applied the "Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus" (HGN) test, where involuntary eye twitching while following a moving target MAY indicate impairment. The defendant failed the HGN test. In the process of administering the walk/turn test, the defendant could not stand without moving his feet during the instruction phase of that test. After refusing to continue the walk/turn test, and also to blow into the meter, he was placed under arrest, where he eventually agreed to a blood test. A police phlebotomist was called and a blood sample taken within 45 minutes. 4 days later the samples were run in the lab and returned a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.093, well over the .08 limit. Besides testimony from the arresting officer, we also heard from the Phlebotomist as well as the fellow who ran the test on the "Headspace Gas Chromatography" device. We heard all about the details of its operation, as well as its statistical accuracy. HGC is the universally accepted state-of-the-art, being only superseded by the much-more-expensive mass spectrometer analysis. So by the end of Day1, we had heard from all three of the prosecution's witnesses, and were sent home with the defense starting on Day2.

I again, used the streetcar on Day2, this time with my brand-new card! After waiting for the defense witness, we didn't get started till nearly 11.  The defense emphasized the HGN test can occur with BAC as low as .05, still legally able to operate a motor vehicle. They also pointed out some miniscule wiggles in the HGC readout that MIGHT have been due to methanol, which should NOT have been seen in the blood samples as it is poisonous. The prosecution pointed out a number of alcohols, foods, drugs and smoking that can leave slight levels of methanol in the blood.

In the end, the jurors all decided the accuracy of the HGC device was undiminished and the .093 BAC had an accepted confidence level of 99.7%. We had little choice but to find him guilty after about 30 minutes of deliberation. The judge thanked us, handed out some very nice thank you notes, and we were dismissed by about 4:30.

After posting on FB, I was amazed that people really HATED jury duty. I think it is pretty cool and very instructive to see our system of courts at work. How can your favorite shows be lawyer shows (at least, from what I heard in the juror interviews) and then avoid jury duty like the plague? I had a nice time, had some nice conversations with my fellow jurors, and learned all about Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, and Headspace Gas Chromatography! Plus supposedly I made $12/day!