Yesterday, I went down to the Superior Court, answering a summons for Jury Duty. It was an interesting experience, but one which was somewhat futile and frustrating in that I spent about eight hours there and didn't actually get selected for any of the three trials they had me attend the Jury panels for.

This is kind of disappointing; I had actually gotten kind of excited about it. It seemed like an exciting change of pace from my actual job (and would pay slightly better, once the trial hit the 50 day mark). Especially disappointing (and potentially interesting0 was the third one.

This third one started very strangely. The Jury Panel I was with (about 100 people who had also been summoned on the same day) were all brought into a large, strange courtroom with all this super-high-tech equipment (I would later learn there's more than 3 kilometers of electronic cables in that one room), bullet-proof barricades, and about a half-dozen desks within the court.



We were then asked if any of us felt like taking part in a nine-month trial. If not, we were free to leave immediately. All but twelve of us did, and I was one of the few to hang around. I thought to myself, "Hey, it'll be a great story to tell once the trial is over, it'll be meaningful work, and I get to call my bosses and tell them 'Hey, guess what? I need nine or ten months off. Yeah, no. You're legally required to give it to me and keep my job available to me for when I get back".

We're all then taken aside again and told that all but one space on the jury has already been taken up, and they need just one more, of which one of the twelve of us is going to be chosen. We were led, shortly later, back into the courtroom, where we listened to a lengthy, lengthy list of charges. Twenty-three counts, involving extortion, death threats, conspiracy, possession of massive, massive piles of grenades, pistols, automatic rifles and the like. The defendants?

Four members of the Hells Angels. 

We were taken out of the courtroom again, and told we  would be led into the courtroom in a random order, and questioned by the judge to see how qualified we might be for this position. I got picked second. My heart was racing. Though I realized that there was an element of personal risk involved in a trial involving a heavily-armed organized crime ring such as this, I also realized that, rationally speaking, very few jurors in such cases ever actually face personal harm as a consequence of their roll. I was all for it. This was going to be an adventure.

The judge asked me about my personal biases and such, and I was able to truthfully answer that while I was of course aware of the Hell's Angels, I was never interested in them enough to read enough to personally bias me. Finally, the various lawyers involved, one after another, said "No objections", "We find this one acceptable", etc. , until finally we came to the one accused who had bizarrely decided to represent himself. "Challenge, your honour", he said. This is essentially court-speak for "I don't want this guy on my jury". It was the final hurdle for me to overcome, and unfortunately, I did not clear it. I was on my way home.

In perfect honesty, I can't say I resent the outing too much. It certainly was an interesting and enlightening experience, and I had never actually been inside of the courthouse before, which was a grand sight to behold. All the same, I do wish I hadn't walked away disappointed. I was all for it. Ah. well.