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jury duty update
Well,
As Ysoie had been summoned for a murder case, I did too. I was also the last person of the day to be chosen. It's 6:15 PM and out of over 250 people and 50 people in our individual courtroom, I was only the 5th chosen over the course of the whole day. It took 2.5 days to finally pick the 14 people (2 alternates). We heard the 22 year old case of a man who with 2 others, robbed a bank and during the course of the robbery, he shot and killed the security guard.
After hearing 3.5 days of testimony and arguements, it took us 4.5 hours to deliberate the evidence. Our duty there was to determine if the defendent was eligible for the death penalty under the advisement of the law (if your interested I may be able to explain the details to you). After is was all said and done we did not consider him eligible for the death penalty. We then had the pleasure to speak with the defense attorneys and discuss facts of the case. The defendent was tried and found guilty and sentenced to death by an all white jury. For reasons that I didn't fully understand, there was concern by the judge raised to him by an independent council in 1990 that caused the case to return to the courtroom. He was removed from death row after the suspicions about the original jury raised enough concern to reevaluate his eligibility for the death penalty. We were not trying to overturn his guilt for the murder.
This last week has weighed very heavy on my heart. I have sympathy for the victim's family who was present each day. My duty was not toward them but to be honest to myself in the interest of justice. That is what I believe we accompished. Thank God it's over.
Thanks for your comments,
Mike