All the court's a stage

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 9, 2007 8:48 PM PDT ∞

VISTA -- Well, I've still never served on a jury.

I've been called to jury duty four times, and three times have gotten as far as the jury box.

But each time, I've been excused by an attorney's peremptory challenge.

Still, despite being given the boot before getting to the interesting stuff, I would in no way label Monday's jury duty a waste of time. If nothing else, I had time to read about three chapters of Lee Smolin's "The Trouble With Physics" (which has the intimidating subtitle of "The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next" -- no wonder it's taking me so long to get through it!).

But even more interesting (yes, some things are more interesting than string theory) was when I was one of 40-some potential jurors sent down to a courtroom at the Vista Courthouse to sit in for selection to hear a DUI trial.

There's some great drama happening in our local courtrooms, better even than some of the drama happening in local theaters.

The two attorneys -- prosecutor and defense --- each had certain elements of theatricality about their performance. Each was attempting to shape the case in the minds of the potential jurors even as they questioned us to see if we had any bias that would preclude us from properly discharging our duties as jurors.

The defense attorney was in his late 50s and obviously experienced in the courtroom environment. He was glib, funny, entertaining -- and very sharp. He joked with the jury pool, the humor hiding the fine point of his questions.

The prosecutor was a young woman, a little more nervous than her counterpart, not nearly as quick with a joke or a smile. More serious, I suppose. But equally sharp, and also trying to shape the case in the jurors' heads.

Yet their performances, though different, were both driven by the need to try to convince the jury of their point of view -- with real-world repercussions for whoever lost. Well, real-world repercussions for the defendant, anyway. Although, if he was actually driving under the influence yet gets acquitted, then I suppose all of us would face some repercussions, or at least potential future risk.

As I say, I was dismissed, so I don't know how the case turned out. In fact, the judge said he expected a trial of three to four days, so the trial may still be under way as you read this.

I found it fascinating, though, to just sit through the selection process.

The defense attorney told us that there would be some technical testimony presented by the defense during the trial -- then promptly used peremptory challenges to dismiss several potential jurors with strong scientific and engineering backgrounds.

Just as interesting as the attorneys were some of the jurors. A handful were dismissed by the judge for cause after openly admitting they didn't feel they could be fair in arriving at a verdict. One man told the court that a co-worker had recently had her son paralyzed by an alleged drunken driver. Another had been convicted of driving under the influence years ago and seemed to think the whole system is a crock.

It was all enough to make one wonder if perhaps Shakespeare didn't pull jury duty himself a time or two.

-- Contact columnist Jim Trageser at (760) 631-6628 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.

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