Lest you think I was slacking.

[nolawitch58]

The past several weeks have been busy. I participated in the jury for this trial. I had no idea I'd be picked. During voir dire, the attorneys rejected over half of the group I was in. I kept lurching toward my belongings to snatch them up and skate out of there. Imagine how shocked I was to be marched into the jury room to await being joined by the requisite number. It took the attorneys all day to select a jury. It took them three rounds of thirty people to get thirteen of us together. I called work and said I was stuck. We didn't get to leave until 6:00 pm. No worries. Traffic was lighter then anyway.

The next day, we heard six of the eight witnesses for the prosecution. I noted the time I pulled out of the parking garage as 7:00 pm. I was tired. Thursday, we heard the final witnesses for the prosecution. Against her advice, the defense called the defendant. He had been agitating to testify the whole trial. Whatever benefit of the doubt any of us harbored toward the man evaporated when he took the stand. He fought with the DA, he fought with his own attorney and he repeatedly irritated the judge. Judge McCabe was the epitome of patience, patience that I wouldn't have had for the guy, and sternly reminded Davis that he had to answer questions and not ramble. I would have warned him once or twice and then held him in contempt. What a yutz.

After that, the defense abandoned his testimony. We recessed for lunch. Returning from lunch, most people were queasy since we had to look at the evidence which included crime scene photos. Having held a used hollow point slug in my hand, I will state unequivocably that there is no valid reason any civilian should have access to that ammunition. None. The autopsy photos showed the damage one bullet inflicted. Any so-called sportsman who thinks he needs those bullets for any legitimate purpose should have his head examined or just admit that they're sadistic ratbags.

The upshot being, in case you didn't read the half as amusing recounting in the link, the jerk was reconvicted. As we were getting our certificates and work excuses, the judge came in and thanked us. Then the DA came in and said we could ask any question we wanted. During some of the testimony, the older of the two prosecutors had a cell phone ring in his pocket. The ring tone was a Cult song. He didn't look like he would know who Ian Astbury was if he fell across him, but the younger prosecutor did. During breaks, I would joke to the other jurors that the cell phone wasn't the old guy's. I said it had to belong to Tommy Block. So, I asked. Tommy admitted it was his phone. "You were right!" other jurors said to me.

Justice was served and we got to leave around 4:30 pm. I went straight to the office. Everyone was surprised to see me. I wanted some normalcy so I got there in time to fight with the server which was flaking again. All's well that ends well.

The story I'm submitting to the contest is done. My hubby, hmc_lavadogs, is proofreading it for me. I'll give it a last look and then email it the day before the deadline. I'll be happy to get back to prior work.

I really need to replace my printer. It died two months ago and I've been so busy, I haven't had time to fool with it. I've got an inkjet, but I'd have to install the drivers and those ink cartridges are so expensive for as short a time as they last. I might use the opportunity to copy all my files and install Mandriva. I'd just let the installation detect the hardware.

We bought hubby a bike last night. He had gone to the doctor this week and she had chastised him for his high blood pressure and cholesterol. Nothing I say along the same lines is as valuable as what a doctor says. So, he's going to ride with me. We both have Mongoose bikes. They're very nice if you're ever in the market for one. They have good shock absorbers and more gears than I ever use. I would like to get some stress relief out of biking and maybe work up to the stamina I had back in Arizona when I could do a circuit through Chaparral Park, up Hayden Road to the canal and over to Pima Road and back to Hayden, all the way down almost to the dry riverbed before ASU. I used to love the wind in my hair and pedalling like fury.

Litha ritual is tomorrow. We're going up to Walker. That will be a story in and of itself. We're supposed to be getting coverage from the local paper up there. I might tell it when I get back.

Comments

[tomo2k.livejournal.com]

Are you sure that you want to link to the case in question?
I do worry that one of his 'friends' might feel like tracking the jurors down.

I remember being called up for jury service - I told them that I was happy to do it, but that they'd have to cover my transport as it would be a £60 train fare every day.

Oddly enough, they told me not to bother.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

I'm not particularly worried. They didn't track any of the jurors from the first trial down. I'd be more worried about disgruntled fascist-leaning UFies.

[mysticknyght.livejournal.com]

dude, he used a .45 with hollow points? unreal...

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah. What a douchebag. He was an idiot on the stand. He literally convicted himself with that performance.

[mysticknyght.livejournal.com]

i've never been picked for a criminal jury in da 24th. been on a civil jury, but never criminal. i always thought it would be fun to be on a jury with a bunch of metairie people who believe you should get the death penalty for check kiting. :-)

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

As you could imagine, I was the most liberal person of the bunch. I don't know why I was chosen. I had taken The Historian to read. That's a thick book and even if you don't know it's about vampires, you'd at least think someone reading it was smarter than the average bear.

[mysticknyght.livejournal.com]

when wife worked for Pan American Life, I used to get out of jury duty all the time. Neither side in a civil suit wanted anyone associated with insurance around, even one degree of separation.

[k-navit.livejournal.com]

Funny (not ha ha), and telling, how the family of the victim refers to the justice system as "the lottery."

[kelli217.livejournal.com]

There's actually a physics-related reason for the existence of frangible rounds.

Remember, the point of shooting someone who's attacking you (and I limit my comments to that circumstance -- defense, not offense) is to STOP them. Not kill them. Stop them. That's why you aim for the center of mass in the chest, not the head.

Now, bullets that remain in one piece can sometimes travel through a person. What they call in the CSI shows "a through-and-through." If they do that, they have not transferred all of their momentum into the target, which is supposed to be the idea. That's the reason behind big bullets and/or high muzzle velocities: greater momentum to transfer into the target.

A frangible round such as a hollow-point is generally better at transferring all of its momentum to the target, because it breaks up on impact and remains embedded. It is more effective at STOPPING the attacker in his tracks, even possibly driving him backward. The unfortunate side effect is that it is also more effective at killing, since the bullet becomes just so much shrapnel.

But here's the kicker. A .45 has so much momentum on its own that even a partial transfer of momentum is usually effective at stopping an attack even if the bullet exits the target. A hollow-point .45 is really nothing more than a killer round. OR maybe in a completely contrived justification, a way to defend yourself against a charging bear? Yeah, not much other use for a hollow-point .45 than to kill. Now, smaller rounds like a .38 or a .22, I can see the greater justification for a frangible round. Especially in a .22. And .22 hollow-points are much more survivable in center-mass shots, for the same reason of them being so much smaller.

Now, if any of these rounds are used in an offensive capacity, then all bets are off, and you can hang the shooter from the nearest lamp post for all I care.

My own jury experience was fairly quick. Aggravated sexual assault conviction after a day and a half of testimony and about an hour of deliberation. And the victim was stupid. You don't check into a hotel room with a guy to study for finals. The defendant didn't testify, and so his previous record never came up in court, but we found out after we rendered the verdict and the case was over and we were packing up to go home -- the judge and AG came by the jury room to thank us for our service -- that he had been convicted of the same crime in another state and had only been out for a few months.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Since the victim wasn't packing heat, the shooter was acting solely in an offensive manner. Also, from my perspective, a hollow point bullet fits the description of "intent to commit grave bodily harm" and he got bonus points for perpetrating an armed robbery. The DA also said that some jurisdiction was looking to try the guy on a similar charge involving a shooting. At least the idiot won't get out to do anything like that again.

Stupid victims are tough to sympathize with. Unfortunately, crime's swath is widest at the lowest end of the socioeconomic scale, thus the victims are more likely to be unsympathetic.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

Any bullet fits that description. Kelli217 can say what they want, guns are for killing. Nobody shoots someone to 'stop' them, they shoot them to kill them. That's why you aim at the chest, and not the leg. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. You can't make guns 'safe' by limiting the types of ammunition you can buy. You only make them 'safe' by limiting who possesses them. It's not the weapon, it's the intent, IMO. My dad has a .357 Magnum in his bedroom which probably hasn't been fired in twenty years, but I'm sure it has hollow points. You break into the house, you can expect it to be defended with lethal force, and I personally have no problem with that at all.

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

We have Mongoose bikes, too.

And Costco sells inkjet ink for half price. Makes it slightly painless. I think the drum on our laser printer is shot. Which is too bad, since it's in the toner cartridge and we're not out of toner yet. Those things are 100 bucks each.

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Wish we had a Costco anywhere within driving distance of here. I've been to their website a number of times suggesting they locate here. I would do the bulk of my shopping at a Costco for the simple reason that they're good corporate citizens. They treat their employees fairly and they have reasonable prices.

I don't know what crapped out on my HP Laserjet 6L. It started printing nothing but Wingding looking gibberish. That's probably a chip since the gibberish printed clearly meaning the drum and toner were still working. Of course, that's nothing I could locate and fix. I really hate having to throw equipment out, especially since the majority of the mechanism isn't broken. I hate that the CompUSA no longer does printer repairs. It's a sick indictment on our society that just as resources are becoming more scarce due to increased demand, we've gone even further into the disposable for everything.

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

There isn't a local shop (run by 1 or 2 people) that does printer repair? My problem with fixing old laser printers has been the replacement parts either are unavailable or too expensive. And then the repair would cost more than simply to replace the printer. I'm still using my mother's HP2100, after my 2P bought it in a lightning strike.

Can you get any troubleshooting info from the HP website?

And maybe you can look around for someone tossing out another broken 6L because it may have working parts that can fix yours.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

I think the only time I've even been called for jury duty was for a check kiter. Good for you for doing your civic duty.

[gyrbyl.livejournal.com]

Wow... glad he was reconvicted!

Sorry to hear you had to look at icky pictures...

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

My problem with the icky pictures was that I thought they were way cool. I had this CSI-like animation running in my head of the bullet tearing through the victim's internal organs. Not many if any of the other jurors shared my fascination.

[gyrbyl.livejournal.com]

*grin* Oughta be working in the vet world... it's "working with icky things on a professional basis"... I can remember the first time I held a severed testicle in my hand (the memories of which have made encounters with sexist assholes somewhat easier to deal with)

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

I've had jury duty twice, and never been picked. :-(

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

I've been on 3 juries over the years; fortunately no murder, but one was a difficult drug case where we (whole jury) felt the defendant was stupid to keep the drug (coke) in his apt. except not doing so might have killed him. But he said no, he wouldn't have been hurt if he refused, the dealer was an old friend was why. He sort of convicted himself and we agreed. it was a federal trial and lasted nearly 10 days. I did not get paid because I didn't lose any pay -- my company was very liberal re such things. A few years earlier, when I was not working, I did get paid for a civil law suit trial in a city court. Who can figure the system?