It makes me think of this song:
When I’m late for work, I go home early to make up for it.
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And was Florida Judge from Florida, or just passing through?
What do you think? 
Actually, I think he is on his way out of town, I suspect he will be seeking early retirement.
Followed immediately by:
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Make sure you get excused from jury duty?
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Young black male, old(er) white judge. WTF did you expect? There is no justice for people of color in the USA.
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He’s got a record; his ass is grass if a cop ever gets hold of him. So yes, he has been harmed for life.
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He’s (potentially) got a record because he broke the law. Anyone who skips out after being sworn in to a trial is going to face serious consequences. This is not a failure to show up to a jury selection pool (which can also get you into trouble, tho not nearly as much). This was criminal contempt of court.
Also, per reporting on CNN “court records show the judge withheld Somerville’s conviction, and the station reported that the judge said he would entertain a motion in the future to drop the charge.”
So, potentially he’s not going to even have a criminal record if he does his community service and pays his $223 fine? And, his community service is going to jury selection pools and telling them the importance of taking it seriously.
Anyway, jury duty is a serious civic responsibility. Evading it is going to have repercussions.
This judge is a sorry excuse for a judicial system gone wrong. His exercising capital punishment on a 21 year old, on his very first time in jury duty is reprehensible. I’d like to see this judge put one of his young white family members in jail for 10 days for missing jury duty. The fact that he noted the race of the 21 yr old as being further reason to enact harsh punishment also shows his bigotry, racist, and unjust attitude towards black people in his courtroom. I’d like to see a comparative review of all the punishments he’s been responsible for wielding on people coming into his court room. How many others have suffered maximum punishment for simple infractions.
The 21 year old who hasn’t even finished school yet, who’s looking after his grandparents, working to support himself and his family, and never committed a crime in his life before, who is black and set foot in a courtroom for the first time, not as a criminal but as a juror, and came out of it as a criminal serving jail time, should absolutely sue the pants off the city for his experience, should sue the judge, and the judge should be taken off the bench and sentenced to jail time for his many infractions against humanity.
This is a harrowing, disgusting example of the injustice, riddled in this country.
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As Black folks, we know that anything we do that’s ‘wrong’ or illegal, no matter how minor, the chances are very likely that we will suffer a MUCH harsher punishment than any of our White counterparts would.
That’s just the reality we live in, and it sucks.
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The fact that this 21 year old could be sentenced to 10 days in prison for oversleeping for jury duty while Zimmerman could shoot and kill a child and not spend a day in prison, and still be able to walk around with the murder weapon, is horrific.
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Why did he get more time than George Zimmerman a MURDERER!?? RACIST JUDGE!
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it’s a pretty good system if you are lucky enough have a job that will pay you for the time off. otherwise, it really, really sucks. especially if the judge thinks that your ability to pay rent doesn’t matter.
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It beats having to come in day after day for a week and sit around until you’re called to a courtroom, which is the situation in some other states.
That’s not to say that missing one day of work can’t be a hardship to the working poor, or that missing more if you’re selected as a juror can’t be more so. The courts should require that the employer covers at least a half-day’s state minimum wage for each day of actual jury service.
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Sorry, where does it say he had the guy executed?
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Clicks on link, looks at picture of “offender”
Yep, just what I thought. That’s the only reason he got in trouble.
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Technically, Somerville committed a crime. Actually, Kastrenakes is an overzealous authoritarian jackass, whose personal biases are of particular concern. I thought it was just about the kid’s stereotypically black first name, not realizing he had actually been empaneled, so the judge had seen him, and that the “offense”, such as it was, was more severe. The kid should have got a reprimand, maybe a fine. That would have taught him a lesson just as well. But…an hour wasted! How dare he!
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I regularly get summons from three (3!) different courts in my area here in California & they clearly don’t talk to each other. I’ve often gotten a summons from one when I had recently fulfilled my duty at another.
On two occasions I was lucky enough to be able to find my proof of service or whatever they call it from the previous day wasted sitting in a room from like 6 months prior.
A few times I have received a summons and after logging on to the website for a couple consecutive days, I was told I did not have to go in. That sure makes it hard to plan anything else though…
I wouldn’t be so annoyed except I’ve never even been called from the waiting room for the first round of selection. Inefficient waste of time.
Also, I’ve lived in three other states and have only ever been summoned in CA (w/ far too much frequency).
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