I've Done My Civic Duty!

I’ve done my civic duty…

Well, I can now cross off “be picked for jury duty” off my list of things to do! But, let’s be honest, it wasn’t actually on the list!

Monday I was called to report for jury duty for Jackson County, Missouri. I had been called once before, taken upstairs but not picked. This time, I wasn’t so lucky!
For those of you who have never been called (or chosen), here’s how it all goes:
You get to the courthouse at 8am and sit in a stuffy room with about 150-200 people. You get to watch a video about the judicial system with local celebrities (George Brett), local newscasters and a few judges. Then, they start calling names in groups of 60. I was the FIFTH name called! Seriously?!?!

After a while (It was actually fairly quick this time – probably by 1030am) the first group (mine) was taken upstairs to the courtroom – District 18. I was lucky enough to be one of the first 20 people which meant I got to sit in the jury box during the initial questions – AKA – the comfy seats!! During this time, both sides ask questions to the potential jurors to determine who they’d like to pick to become jurors. The last time I had jury duty, it was a medical malpractice case and I told them that it was over my head and b/c I have slight ADD, I’d just quit listening. I TOTALLY should have pulled the ADD card again. I only answered one question (bad idea). The main reason is many of the questions really didn’t apply to me and I was honestly sick of the questions and hearing the STUPID answers from fellow candidates. They are ALWAYS a few idiots in the room. #40 was a prime candidate for that – it was obvious right away she would NOT get picked. And honestly, if they’d sent her home at lunch we’d probably saved an hour listening to her stories!!

FINALLY around 5pm they gave us an hour break (but you couldn’t really go anywhere since the courthouse was closed and you’d get locked out) and told us they’d call us in at 550 to let us know who had been picked. Around 625pm we were finally called in and I was the SECOND number called. AUGH! To say the least, I was NOT happy. It had been a really long day and everything took WAY longer than planned. (It was VERY frustrating how late they ran after each break. 60 people were almost able to be back on time but the attorneys never were!)

During all this time, I did at least come up with some great comparisons for many of the people in the courtroom! On the wall, there was a photo of a judge (not our judge) who looked similar to Uncle Karl Banks from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air! The attorney for the state looked like Ellen Pomeo (Dr Grey) from Grey’s anatomy. Her assistant looked like Tiger Woods. This at least gave me a little bit of amusement – and of course I shared with some of my fellow jurors. One of the other girls decided the judge kind of looked like a younger Gregory Hines. Oh, and how can I forget the defendant…he looked like a male Whoopi Goldberg!!

Tuesday, I reported for jury duty at 9am. District 18 was going to be my “friend” for the next few days.

The day started with opening statement and followed with 7 witnesses!! We had to hear the same story, from different points of view numerous times! AND it didn’t help that the defense attorney (who I like to refer to as Elmer Fudd) would ask the same question over and over and over again!! At points, I was offended by the repetition! (the judge was a bit annoyed with him as well and the attorneys were called to approach the bench NUMEROUS times!)

A little (brief) background on the case: The victim (and some family) went over to her mother’s house (at her mother’s request) to ask her mom’s husband (who had only been back in the home 10 days) to leave. The mother stayed in the car (she has some health issues) and the daughter (and possibly two others) went into the home. She had a short conversation with the defendant asking him to leave. He went out to the car to talk to his wife then went back into the home and came out with a knife. He came at the victim (the daughter) and they went around until her son got her away. The defendant went back in the home, got his bags and walked down the street. The victim has no stab wounds but does have bruising on her arm. The victim, her son, her niece and a stranger (who was sitting in the car across the street) all testified. They all had a little bit of a different version of the story and a few parts were inconsistent.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes of the day: (surprisingly, these were all answers to the defense attorneys questions)

From the victim – “No, and I don’t know what color the bird and caterpillar where either!”
From the son – “I told you 10 times!” And “what do you want?”
From the niece when asked how long the defendants hair was – “too long!” (this was asked by the state)
From the other witness when asked what the defendants hair looked like – “kind of crazy, like mine is!” (she was white and had curly hair – totally understood the crazy/frizz comment!)

After a long day, we were finally let go around 445pm. Needless to say I had a little frustration! Thankfully I had training with Cassy and she let me hit the punching bag for a while! (probably b/c I told her I’d cry if I didn’t hit something! – I was also having issues with a Realtor not returning my calls/emails!)

We all returned this morning expecting another long day! Instead of starting at 9am, we ended up starting around 10am so that the attorneys and judge could discuss the case and get the ball rolling quickly. Thankfully there weren’t any more witness and we were up in the juror room deliberating by 11am!! (and they took our cell phones away!)
They brought in lunch as we were deliberating. I won’t lie, my first reaction to all of this was that he was GUILTY! I don’t think any guy should strike a girl in any way AND if you were to come at me with a knife, I would be in fear for my LIFE! You don’t show someone a knife. A few of the others agreed with me, but a few didn’t. I had a few back and forth’s with one guy who believed that the defendant didn’t mean to harm her b/c if he wanted to, he would have stabbed her. SERIOUSLY!? He had a knife for fun? (I’m kind of glad I wasn’t the forman b/c I’m not sure I could have been calm with this guy). He also wanted to throw out almost all the witness testimonies b/c they were different and not fully consistent BUT thought they had “gotten their stories straight” b/c they all heard the defendant say “I’m going to kill you bitch.” I, along with a few others, do believe that the witnesses were telling THEIR truths. We all see things differently and are affected differently. I can not honestly say I’d remember all of my surroundings and exactly what happened if someone was coming at me with a knife. I’d only care about myself and that knife being as far away from me as possible! I’d be in fear for my life!!
We all discussed how we felt for a while. And read over and over the three counts that the defendant was charged with. We ALL agreed it was a domestic assault (they were relatives by marriage). We still didn’t agree if we could render a guilty verdict – without a reasonable doubt. There was still some doubt in the room. One of the other jurors reread the first count and noticed that it asked if the defendant had STABBED AT the victim. We all agreed that we could not agree, without a reasonable doubt, that this had happened. There was no proof. They never found the knife, she had no stab wounds…there just wasn’t proof!

Verdict – we the jury decided the defendant to be NOT GUILTY on all three counts.
I won’t lie, I think he is GUILTY, however, he was not guilty of the counts that he was charged with. I do think he threatened her and I do believe there was a knife involved that he threatened the victim with. However, with the evidence we had and the questions we were asked, we had to say he was NOT GUILTY.

Through this experience, I learned that even though it is my civil duty, I honestly don’t think I can do jury duty again. I did have some initial reactions - which I did not let affect my decision - but it was hard. I also was VERY curious about other things that were not presented: why didn’t the family know the mom/grandma’s husband very well? How long had they actually been married? The mom/grandma had just passed away..how? Why did the defendant hide his hair? Has he been convicted of other crimes? No, these things didn’t matter, but I am curious. One of the questions asked during day one of jury selection is “do you need to know the whole story or just the part you need-to-know?” I guess I don’t NEED to know the whole story, but I sure am CURIOUS about the other parts!! I hope the defendant stays out of the lives of the victims!