For the 3rd time in 5 years, yours truly was called down for Jury Duty. Uugh! I know people that have been called once... maybe twice... but three times? Needless to say, I wasn't happy.
You see, 3 years ago I served on a jury. It was a drug dealer case, and the defendent was caught with a pound of cocaine attempting to sell it. His name: Tito. Now Tito was defended by Craig Watkins, current DA of Dallas County. He spun that case in so many ways that it caused the jury to deliberate for several hours on an obvious "GUILTY" verdict. I mean, Tito was caught with a pound of cocaine... yet some of my fellow jurors felt compelled that "maybe this wasn't the right guy." Uugh. When it was all over, we convicted him. Watkins came into our jury room afterwards and asked, "Did ya'll believe anything I said?" One of the bleeding hearts gasped, "You were lying?" Well, that's when Watkins quickly said, "Of course I was lying. I'm the defense attorney. All I've got to do is to provide doubt."
So that wasn't the most pleasant 3 days of my life. This time, I went down there with a big chip on my shoulder. You arrive by 8:30 for "attendance." Then you sit for 2 hours until they start calling your jury number and assigning you to a specific court. Of course, I got another criminal court. We wait for another half hour until they hand out a questionaire. One of the questions is your feelings on defense attorneys. I write, "Slime."
When we go into the court room, I find out that I'm number 5 out of 60. That means I'm a dead ringer unless I get myself out of this mess. And, it's a murder case. Specifically, a manslaughter. And worse, the defendant (sitting about 10 feet from me) pleaded guilty to killing another person (stabbing). I'm not the only person wondering, "So why are we here?" Well, it's a sentencing hearing. This means we must decide a sentence between 5 to 99 years for the 20 something kid (he looks like he's 19-21).
I decide to become a person I'm really not. Therefore, when they ask questions such as, "Do you require the defendant to take the stand" I say "Absolutely." Even though the state doesn't require it, I knew it would paint myself as a loon. Even the judge asked me specifically the same question, and I stuck to my guns. Another question that they asked was, "The minimum is 5 years. Could anyone in this room NOT give 5 years to the defendant under any circumstance." I said I couldn't, and when asked I said, "He admitted he murdered another human. In my opinion, a life is worth much more than 5 years." That one I actually believe.
So when it was all said and done, I wasn't chosen. A "jury of his peers" consisted of men and women who mostly were over the age of 50.
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