PRESENTING MY REDACTED JURY SUMMONS LETTER FROM YEARS AGO
The following is an encore presentation of a post I made last year, which reflects my complete disgust at this moribund, unsalvageable nation. It is a redacted copy of the jury summons letter that I mailed certified to the authorities years back when they had the unmitigated GALL to "order" me to serve on a jury. Even if they had asked politely I would been forced to decline, as I am so jaded and untrusting that I wouldn't believe god itself if such a being appeared to me on a winged horse. I have thought these things for decades, and I now have absolutely no hope that this country will ever return to the principles that the founders intended for it.
Any reader may feel free to copy and use my text as a template for your own letter if you like, though I do retain copyright for any and all of my work.
That said, what do you think of my remarks to the Jury Commissioner?
25 August 2xxx
Jury Commissioner
Circuit Court for xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxx
xxxxxxxxx Maryland 2xxxx-xxxx
Dear Sir or Madam,
This letter is being sent to your office under section “J” of the jury qualification questionnaire sent to me.
I do not feel that I would be of any legitimate value to you as a juror due to my personal worldview regarding the current condition of this state, nation and culture. Many decades of living on this planet have taken their inexorable toll, making me a suspicious, cynical, bitter, atheistic man who has little use for any political system, including the “Constitutional Republic” that this nation supposedly is. I view America as a moribund, predatory, corrupt plutocracy, run by amoral individuals from top to bottom. I haven’t bothered to vote in decades, as all of the candidates are the same to me, whether Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. In my opinion, the only motivations of those running for and holding office today are the pursuit of money and power; justice and protection of individual rights of the citizenry under the Constitution don’t even enter into the cunning minds of those who sardonically claim to aspire to what is called public service.
In complete disgust, I even want as far to have my name removed from the voter rolls after having received a forwarded “voter registration” notice last year to my address in xxxxxxxxxxx, listing me as an Independent voter residing at xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx, xxxxxx, Maryland, 2xxxx, a residence that I have not lived at for over 20 years. My driver’s license lists my current address in xxxxxxxxxxx, and has listed it as that for years; I candidly suspect that I have “voted” in several elections since I stopped voting in the nineties, as most voters who do not vote are purged from the rolls after five years or so. It does seem rather odd that I removed my name from the rolls just last year, and now I receive a summons for jury duty this year.
That said, as a juror in a criminal trial I would be expected to review alleged “facts” provided by the State as evidence to consider the innocence or guilt of a given suspect in a jury trial. How can I possibly be expected to do that when I know for a fact that the authorities have been proven to go out of their way to manipulate or fabricate evidence in order to obtain a conviction? All one needs to do is look at the appalling records of the police and prosecutors across this nation, including Maryland, and the myriad overturned convictions in every state, displayed on television nearly every day.
The exonerated victim Kirk N. Bloodsworth, a Maryland resident and citizen wrongfully convicted of rape and murder immediately comes to mind. Bloodsworth was convicted twice by properly voir dired juries of his peers, and yet he was innocent of the crime; the moral and ethical implications of such convictions are staggering. Nine years of a man’s life spent in prison, two on death row, for a crime he did not commit. He endured beatings and other abuse, it is amazing that he survived the ordeal. Finally, Bloodsworth was pardoned, but nine years of his life are forever gone, thanks to a determined State of Maryland that couldn’t have cared less if he was innocent, as long as he was convicted. I cannot say for others, but I could not live with myself if I made such a mistake, i.e., convicting an innocent man.
Our police of today seem as criminal as those they pursue; they tend to shoot first and ask questions later, as illustrated over television with the bullet-riddled corpses of minorities and other hapless victims. Often police lie to cover up their wrongdoing; names like Michael Slager and Johannes Mehsearle come to mind. A short time later, their actions are dismissed as “good shootings”, the victim is buried or cremated, family members make millions in lawsuits, and the remorseless, amoral policeman goes back on the beat, hunting for his next victim to put in the grave, like an armed, badged, duly sworn grim reaper.
During my encounters with the police, they have, for the most part, treated me like absolute dirt, all for minor traffic violations like having a bad tag light or a bald tire. I vividly recall on January 4, 1991 that I was driving a 1xxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx on Route 100 at 7:30 PM in Glen Burnie Maryland, where I was arrested by an Anne Arundel County Police Officer for the “crime” of having my own money on my person. I was accused of being a ‘drug’ dealer, my car was searched and my tools stolen by the police – which they of course denied, telling me “there were no tools in the trunk of my vehicle”. It took me over one year, $1000.00 in attorney’s fees, and I had to sign a disclaimer that I would not sue them – all to get my money that I legally earned back from them, without being convicted of any crime. I was of course “charged” with “disobeying the lawful order of a police officer” so they could hold me and steal my money – which was thrown out of court later by a judge.
Further, I was defamed before the entire world in the “Crime Beat” section of the Evening Capital newspaper, which blithely stated my full name, i.e., xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx, and that the funds seized from me were “alleged drug proceeds”. I received no apologies from the police, no compensation as I was forced to sign off my rights to get my money back, or it would have been kept by the State in a “civil forfeiture" proceeding as “abandoned funds”. I was even told by an arrogant Assistant State’s Attorney named Trevor Kiessling that he was “sure that I received my money by illegal means”. I received no retraction from Capital-Gazette Newspapers blatant lies either; I was sent on my way like the lowly serf that I am perceived as by my supposed ‘betters’.
As a juror in a civil trial I would be expected to review and make a judgment based on the ‘preponderance of the evidence’ in such a proceeding; probably some variety of a tort, e.g., a traffic accident, with a plaintiff suing ABC Insurance Company, who would attempt to deny his or her claim using any contrived legerdemain at their disposal, regardless if the plaintiff was injured or not.
I should know. I was a victim of a horrific traffic accident that left me with a back injury, a partially separated left shoulder, ulnar nerve sheath damage in my left arm, and occasional numbness in my left leg, courtesy of a Mitsubishi-Fuso stake bodied vegetable truck colliding with the rear portion and almost running over the vehicle I was driving on July 27, 1993, while I was attempting to turn into my driveway in xxxxxxxxxxx. State Farm Insurance Company was determined to leave me without any compensation for my losses, even my medical injury losses, and I had to sue those smooth talking prevaricators in civil court. After that occurrence, I contemptuously view insurance companies and their ilk as lower than whale excrement, determined to steal money from their policyholders in the form of premiums, and equally determined to never pay one thin dime, even a legitimate claim, using any means necessary, up to and including mendacity and deception.
I feel the occurrences that happened above, which can be easily verified by your office, together with my other, less odious but still disagreeable experiences with police and other institutions, which I have omitted due to not wanting to be tedious, would unduly bias me as a juror. I am not a believer of any kind, but I do have my own personal morality, which makes me unsuitable for either plaintiff or defendant. I do not trust people, and I do not trust the police at all, as they are allowed to lie to suspects, courtesy of SCOTUS, whereas it is “illegal” and punishable for a suspect to lie to the police. Casey Anthony and her travails come to mind.
When I was arrested on January 4, 1991, the police lied through their teeth to me while I was languishing in a holding cell at the Anne Arundel County barracks on Route 3. They claimed they had “proof” that I was a “drug dealer”, to which I laughed at them, knowing they had nothing, that is unless they had planted some drugs in my vehicle, which I genuinely did fear they would do. I cynically wager such a scenario was in fact suggested to upper echelons and vetoed for reasons unknown. After several hours I was released on my own recognizance, without my funds, and returned to my vehicle, parked at an office building on Hospital Drive in Glen Burnie. I discovered to my dismay that it had been ransacked and my tools were gone from the trunk, which was left open. Having revealed all that, how do you expect me to believe one word that they say, having had personal experience with what passed for police over 20 years ago? They are worse now, even if a defendant appeared guilty, how could I truly know that the police and prosecutor weren’t lying and conspiring in order to gain a conviction of an innocent person?
It is human nature for authorities to view such a scenario with the detachment of “better them than me”, coupled with hints of schadenfreude, as I experienced with the “officer” who arrested me so he could steal my money and look good in front of his peers. He truly enjoyed it, displaying his “power” over me, and he made absolutely certain that I knew it. He also referred to me as “dirtbag” several times when attempting to question me, to which I said nothing, which infuriated him. My supposed “rights” didn’t matter to him at all, as in his mind I was obviously guilty until proven innocent.
Convictions also look very good on the records of prosecutors and police, acquittals do not.
The same jaded viewpoint goes for people in general, politicians, insurance companies, banks, and most every other institution in this nation; morality and ethical behavior no longer exist here, and haven’t for decades. If, after having read this missive, you feel that I will make a suitable juror, I will gladly appear, but don’t expect me to go along with what I view as an utterly despicable, rigged game, where people are routinely ground up in the gears of what passes for “justice”.
Regards,
Xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx
