Day 3: Four Irritated Men


The good news came at lunch, which was in a Middle Eastern restaurant on Atlantic Avenue. Lamb stew with okra, rice, pita and a salad all came to $5.00. Very satisfying. The bad news is that I'm foreman of the jury on a murder case.

Everyone else was dismissed except for four of us, and we're the first. Apparently, they're going to do this until they have a full house. We have our own little jury room, with a bird's-eye view of a giant hole that is some day going to be an office building.

One of they guys on the jury is a systems manager who got thrown off the same personal injury case as me. They may hate systems people in the civil court, but they seem to love them in criminal court. All four of us work with computers -- three programmers and a web-page designer. I guess they figure that if we don't like the system, at least we can write a new one.

I liked the Hollywood reference, since that has me playing Henry Fonda. In fact, the whole thing is kind of Hollywood. I'm told that the prosecuting attorney, a Mr. John Holmes, shares his name with a famous movie star. I'm sure he'll make the trial a showpiece.