Civic Duty Follows Me across State Lines
I served on a jury for a criminal trial once in San Francisco. The trial was about three days and deliberations took more than one day. I was subsequently summoned again within less than a year after that, so I got out of that obligation. Some time shortly before moving to Colorado, I was summoned again and had to report. This time I got out of the trial during the voire dire process. Under a special California statute, the DA was trying to commit a sex offender, based on a statistical model that the guy was highly likely to commit a sexual offense again. I wrote on the questionnaire that a point prediction will always be surrounded by a degree of uncertainty and that without a confidence interval a statistical model would be insufficient evidence for me. That was enough for the DA to dismiss me.
I have now been summoned to the Boulder County combined courts. I was actually summoned back in February but postponed the obligation due to my parental responsibilities. I just checked the web site, and I do have to report on Tuesday.
