3 weeks, day 13 -- Justice has been served

Okay, I've decided to focus on the '3 weeks' part of the '3 weeks for Dreamwidth' and focus on making 21 posts, even if they are not daily.

Although that should be a bit easier going forward, since the jury duty is over. I, personally, went into deliberations unsure of the verdict I wanted to go with. In the end, that meant that I had not been convinced, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant did the deed. The DA, we feel was let down by the evidence gathered, or not gathered, by the police. We didn't even get to hear from the lead detective in the case. That also presents a level of doubt about the case. The defendant did do stupid, and there was a lesser charge that we did find him guilty of. Although I did write down the name of the defense attorney, in case I ever need a criminal lawyer. ::grin::

It is a good reminder about 'innocent until proven guilty.' That the prosecutor has to prove that the person charged with a crime is guilty. The defense does not have to really do anything, but they are there to help cast the doubt. The judge was fair and worked hard to maintain the neutrality that the position requires.

It was a good feeling in the end. That at least some part of the justice system does work. I have done my civic duty for this round, which is also a good thing.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

timespirt

Back to fandom from real life. Sounds like it was a simple case?

goddess47

Simple? Yes and no. It was confusing and poorly organized/presented. There were people referred to that would not be brought in, missing evidence (a case involving a gun, without a gun or solid evidence who may have shot the gun), discussion of events that really had no bearing on the actual charges, and a whole raft of people doing stupid.

And there were too many names and we could not take notes. So it took me most of the first three days to remember who all the players were. For anyone who is not an auditory learner, trials like this would be extremely difficult.

But the bottom line that the jury as a whole held on to, was: did the DA prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person charged actually committed the crime they were charged with? We didn't think the DA proved it beyond a 'well, maybe he did it?' level and that's not good enough to make the decision that the defendant was guilty.

But, yes! Back to fandom!

Was the person charged with anything?

2nd degree attempted murder, first degree assault, first degree attempted assault, illegal possession of a weapon, endangerment of a child - 5 charges in total

There really was.a shooting. that was actually proved. But no one was seriously hurt (the one person that was hurt drove themselves to the hospital and was released a few hours later).

Whether the person charged actually did it was not proved at a level that convinced the jury.

Thank you for explaining that.

I didn't want to say 'murder' up front because anyone I say that to goes 'whoa...' and thinks horrid things. It was 'attempted murder' which does mean a serious charge but, as I said, the only person that was really 'hurt' was the innocent child that got swept up in adult stupidity. A 10-year-old was traumatized and, knowing what little of the people I do, I doubt they will get the therapy that they should get.

Good questions!

Well, here's to hoping the child is looked after.

"HUGS"

adafrog

Good.

nagi_schwarz

Kudos to you for serving! Way to go. Trials IRL are typically way more tedious and boring than on TV, and due to the CSI effect people expect things to happen during a case that are unlikely or unfeasible or sometimes impossible. Also people really do forget “innocent until proven guilty” for reals. Glad you got to see it in action! Also your phrase “do stupid” reminded me of my undergrad criminal justice professor who often used the made-up crime “stupid in a no-stupid zone” for hypothetical scenarios.

Once you get called for jury duty, you're off the list for 7 or 8 years (unless you volunteer after I think 4 years). Welp. Every 7 years and 1 day, my name pops up and I get the summons. So I was on a criminal trial jury the first time I ever went and a civil case jury (lucky to be an alternate and not have to deliberate that one; it was a mess!) about 15 years ago.

So I have seen the tedium and downtime and know to: bring my own lunch (food is not cheap nor as close-by as it used to be); and bring my laptop for something to do.

I love your professor story! Good going!

goddess47

I will write happy endings!