The Trial: Day 10 (May 20th)

Day 10

I should have posted this note before as an actual post, but c'est la vie. We were off for two days (Monday and Tuesday) before we resumed. Apparently in this time, although we didn't know it at the time, the other jury deliberated and found the other defendant guilty. I'll discuss that in more detail in my wrap up post.

Today we had the start of closing arguments. The structure of this is rather interesting; because the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the prosecution gives their argument, then the defense gives theirs, and then the prosecution gets a rebuttal, with NO chance of a rebuttal for the defense.

So it was interesting. We got an argument from the prosecution that lasted a little under an hour, which was forceful and intense but pretty light on the evidence, and then the defense had his. And man, did he have his argument. It lasted, no exaggeration, for close to three hours, and would have gone on longer if we hadn't had to end at five o'clock. It was actually an extraordinary argument; it was quietly passionate, and was WAY better organized and researched than the prosecution. It was also insanely thorough, and was quirky enough to have Seinfeld and Saving Private Ryan references in it. It also had a rather wonderful explanation of the legal matters that we had to decide, much better and clearer than even the judge's instructions. We are going to have the prosecution's rebuttal tomorrow, and then we get to actually deliberate! Should be good.

Random Notes

It's depressing that I could be gone for four days from the courthouse (Saturday through Tuesday) and still be recognized by the parking attendant as I pulled into the juror parking lot. Sigh. I've been doing this too long.

The judge had to leave for an important meeting downtown today, so we broke for lunch half an hour early, and got back fifteen minutes later than usual. When we walked back into the courtroom, it looked like the judge hadn't moved from his seat when we got back in; he did not look like a guy who had had to rush downtown at lunch hour, have an important meeting of some kind, and then get back uptown. But maybe he is just that unflappable.

At one point today, one of our jurors for whatever reason was late back from a break. So we had some down time in the court, and the judge told us a story about the California seal, namely how it was created and why the symbolism is the way it is on it. Too long to go into here, but one of our jurors revealed a random classical history knowledge, which surprised even the judge. Also, the judge is a California history nerd. Seriously; he knew something so obscure he even pointed out that he'd be stunned if any of us knew it (no one did, and it was so obscure I've already forgotten what it was).