After clearing security and glad I wasn't carrying any knives this day, I made my way to Jury room 124. There on the table was a number of pages stapled together with names highlighted in yellow and blue. Each prospective juror had to find their name and sign in. If your name was highlighted in yellow, you returned to the previous room to have a seat among 23 other prospective jurors. My name, highlighted in blue, had the number 6 beside it. My destiny had already come into alignment. Born the 6th day of the 6th month and now sitting in the seat for juror 6 it was becoming clear, 666, I was to be selected for the jury.
The grueling jury selection process began at 10:30. The first 14 jurors entered the box and responded to questions by the judge, prosecutor and defender. Two and a half hours later the dismissed 9 of the 14 initial jurors. I was the only male out of 5 that remained. After lunch a second group of 14 entered the jury box. One and a half hours later 7 more were dismissed. For the third round, 7 entered the jury box. Thirty minutes later the last two jurors were selected. We had now spent an entire day on jury selection.
Day two the last juror arrives right at 10:00 the appointed time. Forty five minutes later we enter the courtroom. Opening statements and our first witness get's things moving. As jurors, we also get to submit questions of witnesses after the prosecutor and defender are finished. Questions that may end up being rejected due to inappropriateness. Fortunately mine was appropriate unlike another jurors whose was not. Three more witnesses and 8 pages of notes (5x7) later we head off to the jury room to deliberate.
One juror volunteers to be the foreperson, the one who puts their name on the official verdict, and another actually leads us in the process through the 5 elements that needed to be proved beyond reasonable doubt for us to return a guilty verdict of attempted robbery. Eight by ten photos of the crime scene along with the victim were passed around.
Obviously officers had not been trained in the art of photo composition. The sealed evidence folder with the defendant's watch and broken watch band inside was passed around.
I wondered why DNA samples had not been collected from the watch to positively place the defendant at the scene of the crime. I guess it wasn't needed since the defender did not contest the fact that the defendant was there and had done a horizontal rumba with the victim. I with my 8 pages of notes was ready to argue the finer points as we deliberated, convincing that one juror to our side. Since we were all in agreement, there was no need to convince anyone of anything. We knock on the door informing the bailiff that we had reached a verdict. Thirty minutes later we are ushered back to the jury box.
Our job is now done as each of us are polled as to our agreement with the verdict. Then the judge informs us that the defendant has had two prior felony convictions and we are now entering into the second stage; the determination of whether the defendant is a Habitual Offender. As the two lawyers talk with the judge, I cast my eyes towards the defendant. My gaze is returned and he mouths something to me. Did anyone else see that? What did he say? Does he know my full name? I'm pretty sure he didn't say "Good job". I'm not really sure I want to know what it was that he said. That was the last time I looked directly at him.
The verdict on the Habitual Offender went quickly since it was straight forward. The defender didn't even address the jury. After being thanked for our service we went our separate ways. Me looking back over my shoulders to make sure one of the defendant's family members wasn't following me.
