I was called for Jury Duty, almost as soon as I arrived back in town. Contrary to popular belief, financial and job issues are NOT good enough reasons to be excused from Jury Duty.

I arrived at 8:05 or so (yes, I got lost) and stood in the very long line for 10 minutes. Then sat and read The Pilots Wife until they finally called a group for jury selection, luckily I was in that group.

I was the 5th group of 14 to go in, and as soon as we sat down the judge sent us to lunch until 1:15. At 1:15, they were still not ready for us… it was 3:45 before they started to pick the panel. The juror to the left of me, and the juror to the right of me were both picked.

What bugs me is the picks for the jury. The two plaintiffs were black, and there were several juror choices that were black. One of the plaintiffs lawyer and the judge were also black. But the jury was 75% white, and every man that ended up on the panel was white. Maybe its just me, but this hardly seems like a “jury of my peers” to the two defendants. Now I realize, the candidates that were black could have issues that would not allow them to be fair and impartial in the case, but all of them?

OK, it just struck me as odd is all.