Well, here I am, back in the jury assembly room. It's 8:45am and I have my ubiquitous cafe americano with me. I suspect today is going to be very boring, and I'm hoping to go home early. I would expect the clerk to make an announcement soon if there are any judges requiring jurors; I can't imagine the call coming down at 1:30pm today for jurors, since there's no trial work ever scheduled on a Friday. Unless of course they're screening for jurors for a trial begining on Monday. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

9:30am: Another panel of jurors is being assembled, she'll randomly read names and assign numbers.

9:36am: Well that sucks. I got picked again to go up to a courtroom. The judge wanted 50 jurors, and I'm number 43. So close!

10:40am: I just completed a screening questionnaire about sexual assault, rehabilitation, pschyotherapy etc. In particular, one answer will probably get me out of the jury selection: I don't believe that mental health professionals are all that qualified to evaluate people. I believe they're just as messed up as the rest of us and often make mistakes or are incompetent. I believe that a large part of what they do is guesswork. Other questions were similarly answered; not lying, just magnified my honest opinions.

I have been studying for about a month on "Jury Nullification" the concept that juries have the right and obligation to judge the actual law, not just the facts presented. Judges and prosecutors don't like jurors who know about this power, so I was pretty sure I would be able to use it to get out any jury. On the survey, the only answer I was able to provide regarding jury nullification was that I wrote I'm extremely rational and that I strongly believe in my own personal ability to judge right and wrong.

So we'll see if any of that works!

10:58am: I've been excused for lunch until 1:20pm.

1:30pm: Lunch was with Thomas again, this time at Ipanema Grill. Fairly authentic to the churrascurias in Brazil and Argentina. Lots of all-you-can-eat grilled meats. Yummy. They even had the little red and green cards to indicate if you want more meat, or if you're done.

So when I got back, the clerk announced that the case had been postponed until Monday, so we were all excused and dismissed! I'm done with jury duty. Easiest $20 I've ever made. Most boring, that's for sure, but certainly easy.

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