I wanted to say, "Judge, have you ever witnessed the way some of your colleagues--namely U.S. District Judges William M. Acker Jr. and Abdul Kallon--conduct business? Well, I have, and it ain't pretty, and I'm soon going to be exposing them on my blog. By the way, do you read Legal Schnauzer? My blog stats show that I have a bunch of readers in the U.S. Department of Justice. I hope you are among them.
"And for the record, are all Russians gullible or just the ones who visit courthouses in Alabama?"
I was on the front row, and perhaps Bowdre sensed that at least one person in the audience was not buying her spiel. After discerning that we all were qualified to be jurors, Bowdre said she was going upstairs to her courtroom to confer with prosecutors and defense lawyers in the case, and then we would be called up to be questioned in a process that is known as voir dire. (That's Latin for, "Try to pick as many clueless people as possible.")
After we had waited for about 15 minutes to be called to Bowdre's courtroom, Eiland stepped to the front of the jury room for an announcement. By then, I had meandered toward the back--still thinking about that all-important sandwich decision--when Eiland's voice snapped me out of my reverie.
I heard her say something about three people could go home, and one of the names she called was mine.
Not sure what was going on, I walked to the front of the room, introduced myself to Eiland, and said, "Did you just say that I could go home?"
"Yes, you're free to go," she said and started to walk away.
Another guy was standing there, wearing a big grin because his name had also been called. "Hey, luck of the draw, right?" he said to me.
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