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My week (or most of it).
I did the most bizarre trial this week. A double jury. Two guys were charged with burglary to a motor vehicle, but could not be tried together as they had conflicting defenses. (You know, "I didn't do it, he did".) But there was a civilian witness from out of state, so the prosecution asked for a double jury. This means that a separate jury sits as to each defendant. They are both in the courtroom when there is testimony that relates to both defendants, but when there is testimony relating to only one defendant, or during cross-examination by one defendant's counsel, the other defendant's jury leaves. There are also, obviously, separate opening statements and closing arguments. This leads to much to-ing and fro-ing (or, as one juror was overheard to say, a "Chinese fire drill").
These sorts of trials are quite common in Cook County (they've even had triple and quadruple juries - I don't know where they put them!), but not where I am. So there was much improvisation. I tried to find an admonishment/instruction to jurors in this situation, but there's none in Illinois. I finally found some language in a federal case out of the 10th Circuit and put one together, which the judge did give the jurors.
I don't, however, think that my judge will be inclined to do this again, as he said to another judge: "A bit of judicial advice; don't do a double jury!"
I lost, as expected, as did the other defendant. But my jury was out for five hours, as opposed to one-and-a-half for the other guy's. One of our misdemeanor assistants second-chaired the case with me. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have had a second chair on a case like this, but since opportunities to do a double jury are rare, I thought I'd give someone else a chance to sit in. I hadn't tried a case with her before, and I'm very favorably impressed. Her skills need work, as she's a relatively new lawyer, but she is eager to learn and a hard worker.
Unfortunately, because my jury didn't come back until 9:00 Thursday night, I missed the rescheduled going away party for my coworker (the one I mentioned had been cancelled due to a hostage situation a couple of weeks ago). I've called her, though, and we're going to have lunch next week.
Last night, I went to an ora felice (happy hour) at Casa Italiana. It was geared towards people networking for their businesses, not something I need to do, but I don't pass up the opportunity for wine, noshes, and practicing my Italian! One of the people who came was a woman who had been in class with me a couple of years ago. She had stopped taking classes because she was hired on by a big architectural firm to work on a major renovation project of a historic downtown hotel. Now that that's over, she has gone out on her own. Her husband, also an architect, will join her in this endeavor, but not for maybe a year. She was saying that she wants to do work mostly in hospitality (restaurants, hotels and the like), but when I said that was too bad because the only project I had was my tiny second bathroom, she and her husband were both interested, especially when I said that I want to bring it back to period, because he works a lot with older homes (my building is 1910). I expect, too, that when you are just starting out, no project that brings in money is too small! So I will be calling her, and may finally get this project off the ground.
On the way home, I stopped at a new produce store a couple of blocks from me (very new - they opened on Wednesday). It's called Open Produce, and is focused on sustainability, a laudable goal. Their stock is not huge, but it's varied, and they have a sheet of paper on the door for customers to write down suggestions for what they'd like to see. The prices are pretty reasonable, the staff is friendly (if still a bit green - oooh! pun!), and they are open until 11:00 p.m. almost every day.
This morning, I took my car in for an oil change, and as it was a gorgeous day, rather than wait in the dealer's boring waiting room, I decided to go up to the Green City Market. Never got there. Two blocks up, I discovered another farmers' market, so shopped there instead. I got some lovely tomatoes, golden raspberries, fingerling potatoes, and, in a sure sign of fall, butternut squash and chestnuts. Also some flowers - dahlias and tuberoses.
These sorts of trials are quite common in Cook County (they've even had triple and quadruple juries - I don't know where they put them!), but not where I am. So there was much improvisation. I tried to find an admonishment/instruction to jurors in this situation, but there's none in Illinois. I finally found some language in a federal case out of the 10th Circuit and put one together, which the judge did give the jurors.
I don't, however, think that my judge will be inclined to do this again, as he said to another judge: "A bit of judicial advice; don't do a double jury!"
I lost, as expected, as did the other defendant. But my jury was out for five hours, as opposed to one-and-a-half for the other guy's. One of our misdemeanor assistants second-chaired the case with me. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have had a second chair on a case like this, but since opportunities to do a double jury are rare, I thought I'd give someone else a chance to sit in. I hadn't tried a case with her before, and I'm very favorably impressed. Her skills need work, as she's a relatively new lawyer, but she is eager to learn and a hard worker.
Unfortunately, because my jury didn't come back until 9:00 Thursday night, I missed the rescheduled going away party for my coworker (the one I mentioned had been cancelled due to a hostage situation a couple of weeks ago). I've called her, though, and we're going to have lunch next week.
Last night, I went to an ora felice (happy hour) at Casa Italiana. It was geared towards people networking for their businesses, not something I need to do, but I don't pass up the opportunity for wine, noshes, and practicing my Italian! One of the people who came was a woman who had been in class with me a couple of years ago. She had stopped taking classes because she was hired on by a big architectural firm to work on a major renovation project of a historic downtown hotel. Now that that's over, she has gone out on her own. Her husband, also an architect, will join her in this endeavor, but not for maybe a year. She was saying that she wants to do work mostly in hospitality (restaurants, hotels and the like), but when I said that was too bad because the only project I had was my tiny second bathroom, she and her husband were both interested, especially when I said that I want to bring it back to period, because he works a lot with older homes (my building is 1910). I expect, too, that when you are just starting out, no project that brings in money is too small! So I will be calling her, and may finally get this project off the ground.
On the way home, I stopped at a new produce store a couple of blocks from me (very new - they opened on Wednesday). It's called Open Produce, and is focused on sustainability, a laudable goal. Their stock is not huge, but it's varied, and they have a sheet of paper on the door for customers to write down suggestions for what they'd like to see. The prices are pretty reasonable, the staff is friendly (if still a bit green - oooh! pun!), and they are open until 11:00 p.m. almost every day.
This morning, I took my car in for an oil change, and as it was a gorgeous day, rather than wait in the dealer's boring waiting room, I decided to go up to the Green City Market. Never got there. Two blocks up, I discovered another farmers' market, so shopped there instead. I got some lovely tomatoes, golden raspberries, fingerling potatoes, and, in a sure sign of fall, butternut squash and chestnuts. Also some flowers - dahlias and tuberoses.
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The vegetable markets sound great!
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