Soccer Dad

Baltimore adventures in jury duty

Like Elie's Expositions I, too, have jury duty coming up. It's only been about 15 months since the last time. Once they get you on the rolls in Baltimore City they nab you pretty frequently.

My best experience on jury duty was the time I made it as an alternate on a civil suit. Since I was the alternate I wasn't involved in the deliberations but the jury came to the correct conclusion. (Maryland is unique in that it has a legal concept of contributory negligence. If a person is, in any way, responsible for the damage done to him, he's entitled to no relief. The plaintiff was deemed not to have acted properly contributing to the accident and therefore she got nothing.)

While the jury was deliberating, I got to talk to the lawyers. (There were two parties being sued: an individual and an insurance company.) Since I was really into the trial the lawyers were interested in talking to me. When I talked to the insurance lawyers, I admitted that I was leaning towards the plaintiff until I heard the judge's instructions. Then the senior lawyer turned to his younger colleague and said something like, "See what I told you about how important the judge's instructions are."

The plaintiff's attorney had written up a list of damages incurrred with a total figure of what he thought his client deserved. When the first defense attorney came up to argue his case he left that chart up. I asked why. He said that he thought that the damages were so inflated that seeing it would remind the jury how ridiculous the number was.

In my last stint of jury duty - before I got tossed during peremptory challenges - we were in the dome of the Mitchell courthouse with Judge Murdock presiding. Judge Murdock was interesting. She was full of trivia. (Stuff I love.) She told us about all the movies and TV shows that were filmed in the courthouse. (The most famous movie filmed in the Mitchell courthouse is probably "And justice for all" starring Al Pacino.) She told us the history of the courthouse. And when I asked her about the names written around the dome she explained that those were names of the most prominent lawyers and judges in Maryland during the 18th and 19th centuries. So Wirt, Wallis, Taney and Smith aren't just names of streets in my part of town, they were also legal bigwigs (or would that be big whigs?) in Maryland. Ironically the trial was for a murder that took place on Latrobe street. Latrobe was another of those names.

The one nice thing about jury duty is that you get to see movies. Some of those shown have been really awful. "Clara's Heart" and "Baby's Day Out" come to mind, but there've been a few good ones.

"Guarding Tess" - Nicholas Cage plays a Secret Service Agent guarding former first lady Shirley MacLaine. It's the sort of movie that I can't explain why I liked it. But I did.

"Frequency" - Perhaps the best movie I saw while on jury duty. The first half is straight science fiction and it works really well. The last half it becomes a slasher film, which isn't nearly as good. Still I really enjoyed it (even though it celebrated the Mets' 1969 World Series victory - I'm sure Pillage Idiot would love it). It centers around a policeman who's haunted by the death of his father, a firefighter some 30 years earlier. The policeman has a ham radio and starts having conversations with a voice from the past.

"Hitch" - Will Smith stars as a secretive "date doctor." He takes less than perfect men and remakes them so that glamorous women willl give them the time of day. Eve Mendes plays the reporter who's interested in Smith but also trying to get dirt on the "date doctor." Kevin James is one of his nebbish clients. A lot of fun and a nice date movie.

Blogdigger tags: Jury Duty, Mitchell Courthouse, Movies, Baltimore.