The Trial: A Summary

Well, it is finally over. For those of you that don't know, I have been a juror on a criminal trial for the past month (well, the trial was three weeks, but the jury selection process took a week). For one month, I have had to keep quiet about the nature of the case, but now that we have reached a verdict, and it has been entered into record, I can talk all about it. And talk about it I will! More than you might think.

To be as brief as possible, we were dealing with a murder case. And not just a murder case, but murder AND torture; now you can understand why it took a week to choose a jury. There were also two defendants and two juries; one was charged with the actual crime, while the other (our defendant) was charged with aiding and abetting the first defendant. It was exhausting, tedious, highly disturbing (I will never forget the pictures of the victim as long as I live), and ultimately, extremely satisfying.

Our jury was fantastic; we had all paid a lot of attention, and even though we had our verdict more or less decided on within ten minutes of entering the jury deliberation room (innocent, by the way), we wanted to make sure, to the point where we spent an hour and a half creating a worst-case scenario and walking through it step-by-step, and we listened for an hour to a tape of our defendant talking to the detectives on the case about the truth, to make sure he was really telling the truth.

In the end, the case against our defendant was extremely weak; there was virtually no reliable evidence, other than his own testimony, to even place him at the scene of the crime (there was evidence he was at the apartment building where it happened, however), much less aid the other defendant. It wasn't a hard choice. The other defendant, on the other hand, was clearly guilty, and to be subjective for a moment here, is a monster. The other jury actually found him guilty of first-degree murder AND torture, which seems to be a huge stretch based on the evidence. However, it was their verdict, and it means the other defendant is up for the death penalty! Apparently, both juries came to their conclusions within a day.

So why did I say in the beginning of this post that I would talk about this case more than you might expect? Well, for every day of the trial, I took down detailed personal notes after I got home. They are a combination of discussing the trial day-by-day and reflecting on the oddities and just general doings of the court system and the courthouse in particular. Starting on either Monday or Tuesday of next week, I will be posting one every weekday for the next two weeks, and hopefully they will be both entertaining and an interesting look into the judicial system.

I will have full notes from this last day at the very end, but I just wanted to say in this post how much respect I have for the lawyers in this case. Both the prosecution and the defense did unbelievable jobs, especially the defense. Our defense attorney, who is a public defender, did an extraordinary amount of meticulous research and preparation, and defended his client as well as a much better paid lawyer would have. There was an enormous amount of care and thought put into this case, which at the end of the day was about a crime that was horrific but not high-profile at all. But it matters profoundly to certain people, like the victim's family, and that's what's important.

I can now say with confidence that if something were to happen to me or someone I know, and enough evidence was collected and it got brought to trial, that the matter would be dealt with in as much detail and care as possible. That's a good feeling to have, and it's even better with the added fact that there would be the potential to have a jury like ours, one that cared enough to have general agreement right away about the verdict, but that still took the time to go over the case on our own terms, and to feel truly confident in our decision.

Our judicial system may be incredibly inefficient, but I have an enormous amount of respect for it now, much more than I think I ever would have if I had never been on a jury. Twelve random people got together and served justice. In this case, we clearly did the right thing, and I can't tell you how much pride I have in knowing that this was a job well done.