Barb's Burblings

Trial by Barb

A few weeks ago I received a jury summons. It's actually the second time I've gotten called for jury duty, but I didn't have to go in the first time. I imagine I will this time, though; my number is much lower. (The day before your assigned day, you call in and enter the number on your summons, then it tells you whether you actually need to come in.) Because I'm a big geek, I'm actually kind of excited about jury duty.

Or, I was. Until I saw that John Allen Muhammad, one of the two men convicted in the Fall '02 sniper killings, has been extradited to Montgomery County. He and Lee Boyd Malvo (and again, with the three names for infamous killers) have both been convicted in Virginia, but Maryland wants a go at them, too. Now I realize that the chance of me getting called to sit on that jury is minimal; heck, Malvo's been in MoCo since May. But, still. It does make me a touch nervous. I wonder if I'd get excused, though, just because of the fact that I (a) lived here at the time and (b) lived pretty close to where the shootings took place. To the point that when out-of-town guests visit, I give them a little tour ("And one of the sniper shootings was at that gas station!"), because I'm driving by a lot of the sites anyway.