Diverse jury, with stairs and trees

We turned out to be quite a diverse jury: Six middle-aged Caucasian women, one Mexican-American man, one pacific islander man, one Fillipina woman, one Asian man, one Caucasian man, and one Latina woman. The alternates were a Latina, and two Caucasians -- a man and a woman.

We noticed immediately that only people who were securely employed (salaried with paid jury leave), unemployed or retired could afford to be on a jury, wondering what that meant for "jury of one's peers." We had diverse employment among us too -- home care worker, printer of wine labels, construction worker, gardener, grocery store cashier, bank publicity expert, stay-at-home mom. In addition, two were retired and two were County workers.

We spent all day together, from about 9 am to 4 pm. We listened to testimony, we heard strange and awful things, and we couldn't talk about any of it with one another until deliberations. This made for some interesting social interactions. I noted that the male jurors clumped together on breaks without saying much of anything.

The two youngest women were smokers who raced outside at every break to get the nicotine flowing and check on partners and children via cell phone.

That left the rest of the women together or in smaller groups, and we found out a lot about each other. "L" had had back surgery 6 months or so ago and was ecstatic to be able to walk up and down stairs, of which there were four flights in the courthouse. "S" was a thin, pale, vocal Christian who wore long-sleeved, high-collared lace blouses in the 90-plus-degree heat. "V" was a consultant in disability and independent living, and was looking to change careers. "M" did gardening for the family of a famous movie director, recently deceased. "F" showed us a cell phone photo of her two-year-old daughter getting her nails done, looking bored.

The first few days of the trial, the weather was kind to us, with clear skies and temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s, soft breezes. The section of Ukiah that the courthouse is in has pleasant shaded streets with a small downtown shopping district -- funky boutiques and a cool bookstore. We non-smokers walked around outside on every break.

As the second week of the trial started, the weather became more characteristic of Ukiah -- temperatures soared into the high 90s and low 100s. Walks outside became almost painful, especially for those of us who, like me, were used to the natural air conditioning of the Coast. So, we counter-acted the sedentary nature of jury duty by developing an indoor circuit of stairs that we traipsed up and down on every break. "Just like a stair master," one of us puffed, "except you end up somewhere else."

On the third floor we could look out at the twin four-story magnolia trees, likely planted when the foundation was laid in the late 1800s. As the weeks passed, and we heard about more and more antisocial behavior, I grew to love those trees.