Doin' the Duty.

Today, i did my civil duty and attended jury duty.
Like last time i made it to the bonus round. Luckily, i didn't make it to the lightning round. Either the lawyers or the judge didn't think that i was what they were looking for in a juror. I think my engineering background had a lot to do with it. I was never asked a question directly...and i'm sure if i would've i would've told them how ridiculous their line of questioning is.

First of all...lawyers and engineers think completely different! And that's a good thing. You see, with engineers we ask yes and no question and give yes and no answers. Rarely do we give "grey" answers...or a politician's answer. Because we deal with tangibles. Math is never wrong. Humans are...
Anyway, the lawyers kept asking ridiculous hypothetical nonsensical questions to see how you act, react, deliver verdict, etc in these hypothetical situations. Too many assumptions are made and too many variables are not named. The questions that were asked were not yes or no answer type questions...yet, that's what they wanted to hear, yes or no. Well, it depends...was not an acceptable answer. And from this line of questioning, 12 jurors are selected.

It is my belief that laws are written so that lawyers will have jobs. I'll focus on one example. I was on a jury panel for a murder case today. It is the State D.A.'s job to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the accused did, in fact, commit murder or did knowingly commit an act to inflict bodily harm...or something like that. What the hell does "beyond a reasonable doubt" mean? The lawyers and judge tried to clarify...must prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" , not "beyond all doubt" or not "beyond a shadow of a doubt", but "beyond a reasonable doubt." Huh? Then the judge said that "we" aren't going to define "beyond a reasonable doubt" for you...that is up to you. Ok me thinks if there was a standard definition, then perhaps the interpretations could be kept to a minimum. At least that's what we try to do with our flight rules...although sometimes, there are a lot of grey areas that are left up to interpretation...

Ugh.

Well...bottom line is i was not selected as a juror...probably because of the thinking stated above. I'd be useless...and probably delay deliberations...or hang the jury...i think they made the right choice.

You're next...