June 11, 2008

Sudoku in the court - a trial run. A drug trial has been aborted after three months when the some of the jury admitted to doing Sudoku rather than paying attention. The judge had previously complimented them on their copious notetaking, apparently not noticing that they were writing up and down as well as side to side.
posted by polychrome 16 years ago
  • There is no offence under the NSW Jury Act for being inattentive to a degree that causes the abandonment of a trial. Seems to fit the description 'contempt of Court' though.
  • I wondered about that too Plegmund.
  • The Captain and Bernockle wouldn't stand for any of that nonsense!
  • I just had a jury trial last week. My client would have been better off if the jury had been playing Sudoku. I think that judges need to make trials shorter. They have that power. They can limit the amount of witnesses, and they can limit the length of the testimony. Trials seldom need to go beyond a week or two. It would be next to impossible to sit as a juror for weeks at a time listening to this kind of repetitive, often irrelevant, evidence. If the government can't prove a drug case in a week, then there is a problem.
  • Sudoku is a stronger drug than a drug trial.
  • Let's see... a 4 in that column means no 4 here so this row must have the 4... oh wait, crap... there's already a 4 in that block... dang-it! "IF THE NUMBERS DO NOT FIT... YOU MUST ACQUIT!"
  • I always get sudoku and santoku mixed up. My paper is shredded long before I solve the problem.
  • Sometimes you want the jury playing sudoku, sometimes not. Sometimes you want the judge napping, sometimes not.
  • That's why that ridiculous game needs to be outlawed. There are zombies playing it on my bus, in restaurants, probably while they're driving. It's' freaky and wrong.
  • consider the extra apostrophe to be spittle
  • *wipes face*
  • Now, Jurymen, hear my advice - All kinds of playing cards and dice I pray you set aside, I pray you set aside: With stern judicial frame of mind, From gaming free of ev'ry kind, This trial must be tried! Oh, listen to the plaintiff's cause: Don't worry about 10-Across - Your pencils lay aside. And put the Jumble from your mind: From puzzles free of ev'ry kind, This trial must be tried! And when amid the X and O, Of your good foreman's Tic-Tac-Toe - You find the witness lied; What he may say you needn't mind - From dozing free of ev'ry kind, This trial must be tried!
  • RAH TUM!