Jury Duty Experiences

lorelei2702
Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:02:40 +0000

I served on a murder trial jury last year…fascinating experience. As I sat through voir dire, it was difficult to imagine deliberating with some of the people initially in the jury box, and there was no way of telling who would be dismissed ultimately. When it finally shook out, it was an excellent group, and no one was left who made me uncomfortable. While we did find the defendant guilty of some lesser offenses, we did not adjudicate him guilty of the murder. He had been tried as an adult for something that happened when he was 15, mainly because of the murder charge. We were stunned when we read about his sentence (three months later), EIGHT years for snatching a cell phone on a dare (conspiracy). If we had known the sentence would be that long, we might not have found him guilty of that. These mandatory sentencing guidelines are irrational.