Kerry Serves as Jury Foreman
 

Kerry wins election...as jury foreman

Wednesday, November 23, 2005; Posted: 10:26 a.m. EST (15:26 GMT)

BOSTON (AP) -- Sen. John Kerry's public profile and prosecutorial past didn't spare him from performing that most mundane of civic responsibilities -- jury duty.

Kerry was not only chosen this week to sit on a jury in Suffolk Superior Court, but also was elected foreman.

The case involved two men who sued the city for injuries suffered in a 2000 car accident involving a school principal. The Kerry-led jury rejected their claim Tuesday, and his fellow jurors said the state's junior senator was a natural leader.

"I just found him to be a knowledgeable, normal person," said Cynthia Lovell, a nurse and registered Republican who says she now regrets voting for President Bush in last year's election. "He kept us focused. He wanted us all to have our own say."

This is the Peter Principal at work.

The citizens of Mass. thought that Kerry was Senatorial material, and some red staters thought he was Presidential material, but the Peter Principal - that a man rises to his level of incompetence - has proven them wrong.

His highest level of competence is jury foreman, as these citizens say.

PS: also heard that his "wife" has abandoned his last name, now that the campaign is over. And congratulations to him for his service in Vietnam.

Very strange to pick anyone with so much as a college degree for a jury.

I guess the lawyers on both sides saw the opportunity to get their names in the paper?

Interesting comment. I've got a college degree and have served jury duty.

I thought I'd be passed over because I worked in a TV newsroom, but wasn't.

Actually, DA, it IS somewhat rare for someone who has a certain amount of celebrity and/or education to be selected for jury duty. I forget the exact odds, but they're not good.

I agree with you about the lawyers seizing an opportunity.

The lawyers I'm around (and that is a lot of lawyers) and my professors are pretty insistant that the best jurors are the ones that know the least about the case -- ignorance is bliss.

You want to be able to shape their perceptions as much as possible.

Isn't Kerry a lawyer? In many states (mine) you can't have lawyers on juries.

Pretty sure he is a former prosecutor -- doesn't it say that above somewhere?

You apparently can serve in Colorado. Last time I went, the Chief Judge in that jurisdiction came in and talked to us while we were waiting to see if we would get a case and told us that he had served on a jury in the area in which he lived.

Lol. At least he got elected for something.

I heard about the name drop thing the other day and cracked up. Kerry is such a loser.

This is fairly unbelievable to me.

The guy is called to perform his civic duty, which is to appear for jury duty.

A lot of people in his place would have tried to, or gotten out of it.

In fact, a lot of people would have tried to do that, period.

He showed up and did his duty, and all we can do is sit back and take cheap shots.

If I was trying to get some rich city to pay in a court case, I'd want a bunch of libs on the jury who act on their feelings - "I feel he was damaged, and needs to be helped" - regardless of the facts.

"all we can do is sit back and take cheap shots." Welcome to GC.

Hoosier... so I take it that you don't like Kerry very much?

Where would you get that idea?

Just think of my posts as "equal time"

Since the conservatives on GC are outnumbered 50-2 (possible even 100-2), and there's not one known moderator who even knows a conservative, someone has too sacrifice everyone's love and affection and post conservative. Just before he died, Ronald Reagan appointed me for life to be a conservative GC poster.

PS: During my earlier days, I once spoke to Herman B Wells - a Sigma Nu and the most pro-fraternity major Univ. pres. ever. I think he was a liberal dem, though.

Actually you should be more precise hooiser - rabid conservatives or neo-cons are outnumbered 100-2 or so on GC... not conservatives as a whole - it's just you seem to have no patience for the other branches of conservativism.

Not really. I am a conservative. I just think a lot of conservatives on GC are not truly political conservatives.