Jury Duty

A few weeks ago I had the privilige of attending Jury Duty. I was kinda excited just because I had never done it before and was looking forward to the experience. So, I get there at 8:30 just like I'm supposed to and we sat in a room until 10:00. They finally called us into the courtroom and then asked us about 100 questions. Finally at 3:45 they pick the jury. I was juror #12!!! As soon as you get selected you go right up in your seat and court begins. We were there until about 6 that night. When we left that night they told us we couldn't discuss the case with anyone and we couldn't look anything up on the internet about the case. Suprisingly enough, I sort of listened. I didn't look it up on the internet. So the next day we go back in at 9 and we are there until 7 that night. We did find him guilty on two counts of burglary. The defense didn't have any case except to say " The state doesn't have any evidence beyond a reasonable doubt" The guy never said a word and we had so many questions that weren't answered by either side. And they say, if you aren't sure then you have to rule in honor of the defense. That's easier said than done. It's funny because when we were listening to all of the evidence you wonder what the other jurors are thinking-because you can't talk to them about the case until after you hear all of the eviendence. When we were excused to deliberate it was clear that everyone was thinking the same way that I was-HE IS SO GUILTY!! It only took us about 20 minutes to reach a decision: When I got home that night I looked up his name on the internet and here's what I found:

06/30/94- 3 counts of 2nd degree burglary
12/27/01-speeding
03/02/02-seat belt
04/12/02-speeding
04/14/02-child seat belt
04/14/02-speeding
10/18/02-seat belt
10/18/02-material on windshield
12/30/02-seat belt
12/30/02-material on windshield
09/12/03-seat belt
11/21/03-seat belt
11/23/03-speeding
12/23/03-seat belt
08/08/04-littering 2 counts
10/02/04-tresspassing 2nd degree
05/21/05-speeding
07/14/05-speeding
07/14/05-unauthorized oper a motor veh
07/19/05-speeding
07/19/05-seat belt
08/02/05-2 counts burglary 2nd degree
12/17/05-passing bad check

Isn't that nuts!! After it was all said and done I was glad that I hadn't looked on the internet before we made our decision. I think he was supposed to do 15 years for that burglary back in 1994-that would explain why he wasn't in trouble again until 01. His sentencing is next monday-I can't wait to see what he gets! And you would think that this was a kid right-nope-he's 41-what an idiot!!!