Yesterday's report, a late post

[deborahjross]

So I called the jury people (on Friday) and told them that as a self-employed (not
to mention overstressed and overcommited) person, I could not devote
15-20 hours per WEEK for the next YEAR to serving on a Grand Jury.

And now, for my next act of sanity...

I spent most of Saturday watching LOST IN AUSTEN ("turn off brain,
comfort food time") and stitching up knitted teddy bears preparatory
to stuffing them, also tidying up a story to submit for the next SWORD
& SORCERESS. Pottering in the garden, picking asparagus and snow peas
for dinner, the latter to go in a salad, the lettuce and arugula of
which I will get shortly. Took Cleo (cat, age 16) to vet for thyroid
check -- she's holding her weight, hooray! Napped.

Then after dinner, more teddy bear construction while watching
part 2 of a CAMPION episode with Beloved Spouse.

Comments

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

The next year?!?!? Were they calling with a specific case in mind? I have never served on a jury. I'm really not sure if I'm missing something or not.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Yes, a full 12 months. This is a Grand Jury, that hears the prosecutors' evidence and decides whether there is sufficient cause to indict a suspect, so it's not any specific case, but whatever comes up. The investigations can go on for some period of time (you hear/read of Grand Juries subpoena-ing witnesses, and that can be slow), so there's allowance for continuity. I served on a Federal Grand Jury back in LA; it ran 18 months, although for the last 6 months we were mostly finishing up cases we had begun earlier.

I've served on 2 trial juries, and each time, we were done in a week.

The thing about being on a Grand Jury is that it's an important constitutional protection. Someone has to be watchdog to make sure people aren't tried on ridiculous, baseless charges. Most of the time, the DA has good cause, but not always. So my good-citizen part wants to do it, but I badly need reduced time commitments and stress -- and I have at least one book to finish and one to edit this year!

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I don't blame you for not wanting to serve on a jury like that. :(

I can't think of many workplaces that would be happy for staff to have that much time off anyway. :(

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

The Grand Juries get to set their own hours, and many choose to meet at night for some of the time. That may be a plus for people who work day jobs, but I'm so trashed after a year of night classes, I definitely don't want to drive the 35 minutes into town after dinner!

More than that is the "recovery time" because I'm overstressed to begin with. I suspect I'd lose 2 days of writing for every day of jury work. Gotta keep my priorities straight!