Duty Done!

Wow.....! I can't believe it's over! I mean it's been less than a week since we started jury duty.......but it seems like more! I guess it was just the time spent with 11 other people in a closed room for so many hours......it seems like a lifetime. To make a long story short, the defendant had 5 charges against him. We found him guilty of only 1 (possession of marijuana). The other 4 charges...........1) Possession of a firearm without a license 2) Possession of a firearm without a registration 3) Possession of ammunition for a firearm 4) resisting, and assault on an officer.......we were deadlocked on. The majority, including myself ruled "not-guilty" on these charges. The evidence was just too overwhelmingly simple that this young man was not guilty. Story in short: Officer pulls up behind a suspicious van, turns on lights (sirens etc).......van pulls off. Chase ensues. Van ends up in DC in a dead end street, strikes a pole. Chase is over, but occupant of the van (5 total) flee.......all but one get away....save one.....the defendant. Long in short.......they had to pen the charges on someone........he was the only one left. I couldn't in good conscience, put this young man away (based on the evidence presented), just because he was the only one that was caught. The judge declared a mistrial on these counts.

The judge thanked us for serving, and released us. The lawyers from both opposing sides came into the jury room to speak with us, to ask us what they could have said differently to convince us of their case. We ran it down for them.....on both sides......Offense and Defense.

That was my "LAW AND ORDER" moment.

Case closed.