CNN: Juror who vanished from Stevens trial went to California horse race

Your jury system at work, everyone:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A woman who had been a juror in the criminal trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens told a judge Monday she made up a story about her father dying, so she could go to California for a horse race.

The judge last week initially accepted her story about a family emergency, but was later unable to reach her to learn when she would return.

Here's where it gets good:

"I feel bad about missing the last day or two of the trial," [Marian] Hinnant said following Monday's hearing. "I do not feel bad about going to California."

...

"I couldn't think of a, well, on Thursday afternoon, they'd not finished deliberating, so I thought by then we would be through, and I came home and I thought, 'Well, I'm going,'" she said. "My plane leaves at 6 o'clock in the morning, so I called him (the judge) up and told him my father died, in
California."

Sullivan closed the matter without any punishment against the woman for her absence.

It's not as if this is a trial centered on someone being slandered on the internet--this is a political corruption trial of a major, extremely powerful U.S. Senator.

Look, I understand jury duty is the butt of a lot of jokes and very few people are genuinely excited about getting $5 a day and a brown bag lunch, but it is a civic duty. And just because it isn't Disneyland, it doesn't give people--especially those who have already committed to serve--the right to play hooky with no consequences.

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