One Drunk Redneck

A few weeks ago, I met with Delegate Adams to talk about my ideas for jury reform.   For everyone who has been following my saga of jury reform for the last two years or so, yes, meeting with Delegate Adams is a big deal.   I admit, I'm remiss on knowing who all of my elected officials are.   It's a good day for me if I remember my boss's name and can put that name to the right face.   Apparently Delegate Adams won the 2014 midterm elections since he assumed his current role in Jan 2015.   I vote in every election so most likely I voted for him because I didn't know anything about any of the candidates running that year and party line voting is what I usually do when I know nothing of the candidates on the ballot. Not a drunk redneck, but still a native Eastern Shore man Now that I know who he is, please allow me to introduce him. Delegate Adams is a born and raised Eastern Shore man.   That might explain why sitting down and talking with...

In a previous post , I stated we need jury selection reform.  The process, as is, treats every prospective juror as a criminal before the prospective juror has even balked at serving.  The initial summons is sent with ample warning that failure to comply could result in fines and possible jail time.  Just how receptive should our government people expect a prospective juror to be when right off the bat they are sternly warning and threatening the prospective juror with fines and jail time?  And since the summons is sent regular mail, how can the government people threaten a prospective juror with fines and jail time when they don't even know the prospective juror received the summons? Business 101: don't threaten a customer with the first contact.  Offer them options.  That is a lesson almost every government employee didn't pay attention to in their Business 101 class. Since the days when our Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution, society has changed...

For a sizable population across Maryland, jury service means there are one or two days every ten years or so that a citizen is summoned for jury service.   Selected citizens whine and complain about it, show up for their service begrudgingly, and then forget about the experience until the next ten years or so rolls around and they get called again.   Some would say that one of the advantages of living in or near a major metropolitan area is one rarely is called for jury service.   If a developer wants rural folk to move to a metropolitan area, they have a selling point.   "Jury service only comes around about every ten years, give or take a couple of years and it's only for a day or two!" Yes, I recognize the jury pool in rural communities is limited and citizens in rural communities are called upon for service more frequently - in fact, much more frequently - than their metropolitan counterparts.    In the ten years I lived in Phoenix, AZ, not once w...