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Thursday, June 19, 2008

I'm Done

Yup, Jury Duty is over.

I wish I could say it was a great experience and that I was truly amazed at the wonder of our court system.

I wish I could say that I have every faith in our law enforcement officers, our State Attorney's, and fellow jurors.

I wish I could say that our court system truly looks out for the best interest of those accused of a crime and those who are the victims of a crime.

But I can't and I won't.

6 comments:

Bluepaintred said...

While it sucks that jury duty was not a good experience for you, at least you can be thankful you did not get caught up in a trial that lasted months and months!

welcome back

Avitable said...

Wow, what happened? Can you talk about it?

Not a Granny said...

blue-they would have kicked me out. I'm way too vocal.

avitable-yeah, when I calm down more and quite kicking myself for giving in....

CheekySweetie said...

I had a crappy jury duty experience a few years ago.

The defendant was in an abusive relationship with a man who brandishes a gun at her in the past, in response to which she had him arrested. She still went back to him like so many emotionally and physically battered women do. There were no witnesses to the abuse, in fact all we had to go on was his word against hers, the arrest report and officer's testimony from the previous incident, and the 911 call made by the "victim". So anyway, one day they argue, she locks herself in the bedroom, when he breaks in, she brandishes a gun at HIM. He calls the cops, she is arrested and tried for assault with a deadly weapon, if I remember correctly.

I never knew how tricky a jury trial could be until I listened to the judge's instructions, which said we had to believe the "victim" was afraid for his life in order to convict. It was clear by the 9-1-1 tape that he was not afraid at all, and in fact called while he stood on the other side of the bed from the defendant who was holding the gun. I don't know about you, but if someone holds a gun at me and I believe they may actually shoot me, I am going to run like hell, not calmly pick up the phone on the nightstand and stand there calmly while I tell the police that a "crazy woman" has a gun pointed at me and continue to argue sarcastically with and berate her the whole time.

So all but one of us wanted to acquit her. That one had been robbed at gunpoint when she worked at a gas station, and she felt that the defense hadn't proven the abusive relationship and therefore the defendant's fear when he broke into their bedroom. She eventually gave in, but when she left, she said, "So I can tell my son it's ok to pull a gun on someone, as long as they aren't afraid?" I totally get her conflict over it, but we had to go by the judge's instructions. Period.

I don't know if the relationship was abusive or not, but I do know that he wasn't scared and by his tone on the tape, it appeared that he called out of retaliation for her calling on him when he did it to her.

Anyway, the whole experience was very unnerving and confusing. I'm glad it's over for you.

Tall Man Molly said...

At least you can walk away from the experience knowing you did your civic duty.

Not a Granny said...

cheekysweetie-part of the problem was some excessive force/police brutality used by our local law enforcement.

tall man molly-I wish I could have gotten training hours for it also! I'm still short 2 hours for this fiscal year!