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Anyone do your duty lately?
I just finished a long one. For years I have been called but never even made it to the box for questioning. I was dismissed because of my law enforcement job many many times. I had always wanted to be part of jury service to see the process. This time around I was in group one and seated number nine. I made it through five days of questioning as they filled, emptied, and refilled seats. The selection took a span of two weeks to get done. We ended up with a good panel of people and a bunch of horrid folks were thankfully dismissed. Both sides recognized the trouble makers and booted them quickly.
We all sat through five days of testimony as the case was unfolded for us. This stretched over another two and a half weeks. We were given a very short window to deliberate at the end of the testimony then had to take a four day break and resume in week five.
It was interesting to eventually find out that the defendant had major priors that were kept from us. The case was murder with more twists and turns than the coastal highway. In a nutshell the victim was accused on Facebook of molesting children. A guy working for him found out and confronted him. Things went south and the guy beat the victim to a pulp, waited for him to regain consciousness, and beat him to a pulp again then walked away. Broken face, jaw, 8 ribs, bruised heart, traumatic brain injury...and on and on. Guy is found before he dies and taken to the hospital. Ten days later the family of the victim pull the plug on him.
Other than the guys bloody boots and some statements from witnesses there was no hard evidence. All the rest was circumstantial. The first day deliberating nine of twelve were ready to vote and three were iffy. We hammered out things before we were sent home. The four day wait was enough time for the other three to decide his fate. We got to pick from Murder one, Murder two, Voluntary manslaughter, and Involuntary manslaughter. There was also a special enhancement for the beating being so violent.
We took Murder one off the table the first day of deliberation as the facts were not there for it. We also included Involuntary manslaughter as a guilty if we got that far. Voluntary did not fit so all that was left was Murder two. We had instructions that we all had to agree before we could move on to the next lower charge. We all agreed not guilty on murder one and we all agreed guilty on two plus we allowed the special enhancement to stick.
Very interesting process that I am glad I did but I don't want to go through that again for a while. So stressful!!!. We had to pick a foreman and since I was the person that was in my seat the longest I asked if anyone wanted to be the foreman....nobody raised a hand. To move things along I volunteered and nobody objected. I at least was able to have some control over the group but I let everyone participate and was not any more or less vocal than anyone else. I was just the guy that signed the papers and spoke at the end of the trial. Met eleven really great folks from all walks of life and made a couple friends while we were there.
Funny side story, my wife brought me lunch one day and she calls me and asked where I was. I told her in my car. She said, no, I'm parked by your car and you are not here. I told her I was sitting in my car...this went back and forth until I told her to drive around until she found me. Turns out the juror next to me, Gary, owns the exact same car. The wife finally found me and later Gary told me a nice lady tried to give him lunch
I just finished a long one. For years I have been called but never even made it to the box for questioning. I was dismissed because of my law enforcement job many many times. I had always wanted to be part of jury service to see the process. This time around I was in group one and seated number nine. I made it through five days of questioning as they filled, emptied, and refilled seats. The selection took a span of two weeks to get done. We ended up with a good panel of people and a bunch of horrid folks were thankfully dismissed. Both sides recognized the trouble makers and booted them quickly.
We all sat through five days of testimony as the case was unfolded for us. This stretched over another two and a half weeks. We were given a very short window to deliberate at the end of the testimony then had to take a four day break and resume in week five.
It was interesting to eventually find out that the defendant had major priors that were kept from us. The case was murder with more twists and turns than the coastal highway. In a nutshell the victim was accused on Facebook of molesting children. A guy working for him found out and confronted him. Things went south and the guy beat the victim to a pulp, waited for him to regain consciousness, and beat him to a pulp again then walked away. Broken face, jaw, 8 ribs, bruised heart, traumatic brain injury...and on and on. Guy is found before he dies and taken to the hospital. Ten days later the family of the victim pull the plug on him.
Other than the guys bloody boots and some statements from witnesses there was no hard evidence. All the rest was circumstantial. The first day deliberating nine of twelve were ready to vote and three were iffy. We hammered out things before we were sent home. The four day wait was enough time for the other three to decide his fate. We got to pick from Murder one, Murder two, Voluntary manslaughter, and Involuntary manslaughter. There was also a special enhancement for the beating being so violent.
We took Murder one off the table the first day of deliberation as the facts were not there for it. We also included Involuntary manslaughter as a guilty if we got that far. Voluntary did not fit so all that was left was Murder two. We had instructions that we all had to agree before we could move on to the next lower charge. We all agreed not guilty on murder one and we all agreed guilty on two plus we allowed the special enhancement to stick.
Very interesting process that I am glad I did but I don't want to go through that again for a while. So stressful!!!. We had to pick a foreman and since I was the person that was in my seat the longest I asked if anyone wanted to be the foreman....nobody raised a hand. To move things along I volunteered and nobody objected. I at least was able to have some control over the group but I let everyone participate and was not any more or less vocal than anyone else. I was just the guy that signed the papers and spoke at the end of the trial. Met eleven really great folks from all walks of life and made a couple friends while we were there.
Funny side story, my wife brought me lunch one day and she calls me and asked where I was. I told her in my car. She said, no, I'm parked by your car and you are not here. I told her I was sitting in my car...this went back and forth until I told her to drive around until she found me. Turns out the juror next to me, Gary, owns the exact same car. The wife finally found me and later Gary told me a nice lady tried to give him lunch