GUILTY!

Here's my jury story! Gotta go to the Civil Courts building. The Ghostbuster building (where all of the action happened in the big finale) was based on it. See Photo 1. First I went through the metal detectors. Then I got settled in to some really uncomfortable seats. Really close and chummy with my neighbor! Stayed there all morning. Walked to the Hotel Majestic and paid WAY too much for a turkey club. Walked to a nearby park and people watched for a while. Then back to the comfy/cozy seating. HOORAY! My number is called, and I move to another area of seating. Once all of the other 47 people called are seated, we all get herded across Market street to the criminal court building. Literally herded. Sheriff in front, sheriff in back. Sheriff at each door, and on the street corners. At that point, I wondered what kind of trial we were going in to! They give us a brief overview of the case. Guy caught (allegedly) with over 6 grams of "cocaine base" (crack). So the charges were trafficking and possession. Boy do they ask some questions, trying to pick the 12 jurors (plus 2 alternates). Found out some really interesting things about every one! The guy behind me was an anarchist. Had some arrests and convictions from the late 1970s. He had taken over some university buildings in Michigan. He was currently involved with some illegals from Peru. Generating money for their defense fund. Another guy had just got out of rehab last year. His current roommate was doing time for drugs. A lady was asked if she ever had bad experiences with the police. She said yes, but the police officer in question was her husband. We all got a big belly laugh out of that one. They asked me how I felt about my last jury duty. The girl sitting next to me had some domestic violence stuff going on. That's the tip of the iceberg. Every one has a story, you know? The defendant was in the court room the whole time. 2 sheriffs, 2 prosecutors, the judge, the court reporter, all of us. . . They don't pick the jurors until the next morning. The guy from rehab and the lady married to the policeman are 2 of the ones chosen. I walked down to Union Station (Photo 2) during lunch and bought 6 beautiful pieces of imported chocolate. Yum yum. From the chocolatier on the first floor (Photo 3), near the lake. Called Cioccolato (www.iluvchocolate.com). Once we get picked, the trial starts and is over within a couple of hours. We go in to the jury room around 4pm on Tuesday. Within a half hour, 8 of us agree that he had the drugs. 4 weren't sure. Actually, I don't think that they understood the requirements, the tunnel vision, that you need to make the decision. They were off on other tangents. All they needed to focus on was did he or did he not have the drugs, They were worried about whether he was abused during arrest, whether he was provided health care, whether the police planted the drugs (that one made no sense in this case, other than it was the defendant's main mantra). If the drugs WERE planted, the defense attorney sure did not pursue that trail!!! So we had to come back again on Wednesday. Almost immediately, 2 of the not guilty people changed their mind. So now we were down to 2 left. These people just didn't get it. I can see how juries become hung juries. We all had to agree on the verdict, or the trial would have to be re-tried with a new jury. Then they were wondering what would happen to this guy. That' s not what we were there for. . . we just had to decide did he or didn't he have the drugs. Well, after another 2 hours (we had them bring in the drugs so that we could see how they had been packaged/handled by the cops), they finally said ok, they thought that he had the drugs. That ends that. Back to the jury box for us. The defense attorney has us polled individually to see if we agreed to the verdict. After we all said yes, back to the jury room where the sheriff told us more about the guy. We weren't allowed to hear all of this crap during the trial. He had many more trials to go yet. One was a bank robbery charge. Armed. He was known as the cell phone bandit, because he was always on the phone when he robbed. So I feel MUCH better about our decision. He had looked directly at me when he was telling his tall tale about being beat up by the police, and having the drugs planted on him. He was sitting about 10 feet away. I was feeling a lot of sympathy for him. What a talker he was. One of the jurors told me that I shouldn't have made eye contact. That is absolutely true! If you are ever on a jury, NEVER make eye contact with the defendant or their supporters in the audience. You could really be in danger. Before we left the jury room to go home, the sheriff had us wait until he checked the halls to make sure that the defendant's family were not around. Yikes. I hadn't thought of that danger! But, all in all, it was a great experience. I will do it again when called. Hope you all do, too. If you ever are a victim or a defendant, you would WANT someone like you on the jury!!!! We don't need any more dum dums making legal decisions. Wow, this was a long post. Hope that you enjoyed it!