smokerblog

12 Angry Men

Okay, so jury duty isn't that bad. Last Monday I ended up getting picked to serve jury duty on a one-week trial. The charges were two counts of drug possession with intent to distribute and one count of "possesion of a firearm in the furtherance of the commision of a drug trafficking crime." We did't really see how the gun, which according to the evidence was lying on the floor two rooms away from where the drugs were found, furthered the commision of anything. So we convicted on the two drug counts, but not the gun count.

It was actually quite an interesting and positive experience. We had an equal number of men and women on the jury with two ethnic minorities represented and a fairly diverse mix of social backgrounds and income levels. There wasn't any bullying or browbeating of any kind in the jury room and everyone had an opportunity to speak and raise questions. I would hope that my experience was the norm for jury trials. It would give me great confidence in our criminal justice system if that were true.