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In 1974, when I was not even 21, I sat on a jury for five weeks. Things I remember about that: The courtroom was in the old Courthouse at Minneapolis City Hall in Hennepin County (and not in the new Government Center) since it was a change of venue from a southern county. The courtroom felt like a courtroom (closer to To Kill a Mockingbird than to OJ Simpson’s courtroom) A fellow juror who was very pretty (and probably thirty) and wore summery dresses every day. A male deputy or crime lab person who wore a ton of turquoise jewelry during his day on the stand. This was commented upon by jurors in deliberations. Since we were hardly paid, leaving there and going to my maintenance/landscaping job and working there from 6-11 pm every day. The matching of the torn sheet used to bind the victim to the rest of that sheet in the defendant’s storage locker (CSI Minnesota). We were trying him for the rape/murder of a woman – We were not told (and did not know) that he had already been convicted for the murder of her husband (the victims were apparently hitchhiking). I’m not sure why there were separate trials. Selecting as our foreperson a fellow who had made no secret of the fact that he was not happy to be on jury duty. He turned out to be a good foreperson though. We jurors spending hours trying to figure out all the differences between 1st and 2nd degree murder, finally charting out the language on a chalk board. Going to a Woody Allen movie during lunch one day (lunch was always a minimum of two hours). The defense attorney’s summation including a mental image of persecuting witches by piling rocks atop them – He was alluding to the 200+ prosecution exhibits which he apparently felt were overkill (it was not a very successful argument). At the time of conviction I believe he was to be serving the longest sentence in Minnesota (2+ life sentences or something like that). He’s still around – he just turned 70 and I would guess has served more time than 99% of the prison population. info.doc.state.mn.us/publicviewer/Inmate.asp
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Source unknown (received via email) Let me see if I have this straight…
If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're exotic, different. Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.
If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.
Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.
If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.
If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.
If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.
If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
If your husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.
'The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense'
~ Tom Clancy
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