Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Jury duty
I got called for jury duty this week. The experience is naturally tiring and frustrating; lots of hurry-up-and-wait. Of course I won't give details of any cases, but just a couple of observations. The judges and lawyers I've seen here in the Spokane County system are uniformly competent and respectful of all sides. I'm pleasantly impressed, because my previous experience on the wrong side of the court system (in Ohio, 1969) gave a rather different picture. Even allowing for the obvious difference in viewpoint and age, I can see that those Ohio lawyers and judges were several steps below the Spokane bunch in general honesty and competence.
I doubt that any of these lawyers would commit such an elementary error as the failure in the Moussaoui case.
More broadly, I observe how the 'rule of law' depends on a general cultural agreement and a sense of reciprocity. Jurors are willing to be fair because most of us have seen and experienced fairness. When we expect the new Iraq government to try Saddam on the basis of 'rule of law' when we haven't even established basic security, we are expecting the impossible. He knows that he is still the ruler of Iraq, and he will take power again. Guaran-goddamn-teed. ¶ 6:54 AM
I doubt that any of these lawyers would commit such an elementary error as the failure in the Moussaoui case.
More broadly, I observe how the 'rule of law' depends on a general cultural agreement and a sense of reciprocity. Jurors are willing to be fair because most of us have seen and experienced fairness. When we expect the new Iraq government to try Saddam on the basis of 'rule of law' when we haven't even established basic security, we are expecting the impossible. He knows that he is still the ruler of Iraq, and he will take power again. Guaran-goddamn-teed. ¶ 6:54 AM
