The Trial: Day 6 (May 12th)

Day 6

Super-quick note here. The two detectives I mention in the random notes did eventually testify, but were present for pretty much every day in the court, which still baffles me.

This was, without question, the most boring day so far in the court. Believe it or not, we did one thing today. We listened to phone/jail cell conversations between the two defendants. That's it. These lasted for three hours, which was about how long we were actually in the jury box today. It was unbelievably boring, although it was also by far the most damning evidence we've heard yet. These are not exactly the smartest individuals of all time, so they definitely said some very incriminating things, but also didn't just flat out admit anything. There were also some very odd statements made that raised new questions about what exactly happened, and also what the stakes might be in the case. But amazingly, we heard no testimony today of any kind, and the defense lawyers literally just had to sit there and listen; they never got to the stand. I really have nothing else much to say about today, except of course for the notes. The prosecution should wrap up their case tomorrow, thank god.

Random Notes

We actually started relatively early today, but had a major delay once we were all in the courtroom because one of our jurors wasn't present, even though we had seen him before waiting with us outside. Why was he late? There are two parking lots around the courthouse; one is for jurors exclusively and is free all day but fills up quickly, and one is for all the other businesses around the area and costs money unless you get validated. Usually, we don't get to the courtroom in time to park in the free lot, so we park in the other lot and get validated. He went downstairs to get his parking ticket validated, which usually takes all of a minute or two to do. However, he was informed that because of the fact that the juror parking lot had spaces available (this was the first day so far where the lot actually did have spaces available in the late morning, so I don't blame him for assuming it didn't), he couldn't get validated and had to move his car. Yeah, I don't get it either. But anyways, this forced him to have to go down to the parking lot, move his car, get out of the garage, which can take a while thanks to a slow elevator, get through the metal detector, which can take ages, and then make it back. Needless to say, a stupid rule made us start twenty minutes late today. I don't blame him at all.

Each juror got a copy of three different transcripts. All in all, we're talking roughly eighty pages of transcript each. Considering we have thirty jurors, that's a lot of pages.

One of the transcripts had just come out of the printer, and was so sharp I got a nasty paper cut from it while in the box. I had to sit and try not to bleed on the transcript. Ewww.

There have been two detectives that have been present every day of this trial, and all day as well. This is one thing that genuinely surprises me; you would think that bona fide detectives would have, I don't know, more important things to do than to just sit and help the DA out without testifying for two weeks. Maybe they're getting overtime for this.

It was Juror Appreciation Day today! This meant that on our way out from the courtroom today, we got a nice packet containing the history of the court system, the history of the LA judicial system, a pen, a sticker that reads "I Served," and the best thing of all, a portable copy of the Constitution! I want to put the Constitution in my shirt pocket and see if it can stop a bullet.