There are few spectacles more pathetic than a roomful of otherwise responsible people trying to squirm out of a civic duty enshrined in Magna Carta as one of the signal boons of democracy. On the other hand, who in his right mind wants to serve on a jury? Impaneling a jury for United Staes v. Elizabeth MacMann was more daunting. When the prospective jurors entered Judge Umin's courtroom with the downcast shuffle of the damned, most of them took one look at the judge, Boyce, and the deputy attorney general and uttered the same silent cry : Oh God, no - not that case!