Jury Duty

I just finished my time serving as a juror in a child molestation case at the 2nd District Court in Davis County.  It was difficult.  In the end after two days of testimony, we had to fnd the defendant "not guilty" but basically because the prosecution didn't do a good enough job getting us to believe without a reasonable doubt that he was guilty.  There were so many more questions that should have been asked.  So many more objections that should have been made to the "side show" the defense was putting on.  It was truly sad....and the guy probably really is guilty.

No one likes to be called to Jury duty...and sitting there with my fellow 45 other potential jurors, I was racking my brain to see what objection I could make to get out of it.... but in all good conscience, every "out" that was given, I just didn't have an excuse for...so in the end I was the loser-winner, or winner-loser, whichever way you want to look at it.

They put all of us new strangers in a room, and then tell us we can't discuss the trial, until the end of the trial, and really the only thing we even have in common is the trial.  So there were long stints of awkward silence during recess periods.  And the fact that it's called recess at all is pretty funny... our "recess" consisted of being escorted by an officer into a locked room.   Sometimes they threw in oreos to keep us happy.  

A court room trial is  a long interesting process, but one I'm actually glad I experienced and can now check off my "I have never" life list.