Yes...I'm done with jury duty!

It took 2 1/2 days to choose a jury

& 1 1/2 days to hear the trial

& one hour to deliberate.

These people were ready to convict the defendant in 5 minutes...I mean it...the court clerk wasn't even done bringing us all the evidence to inspect...& these people were asking for a vote.

After the clerk left & closed the door we weighed the evidence...ok...I did anyway...the defendant had a right to at least an hour of deliberations (without even knowing the case, you agree, right? It's a respect thing...respect to the court, to the system, to the terrifying fact that he was looking at spending the next 30 years in prison).

The 34 year old defendant was charged with trying to bring 15 lbs of cocaine & heroin into the country through the airport. Takes balls...certainly...but upon looking at his passports (he had more than one name)...it seems that he had been doing this for years. Every 3 months or so & as far as we knew...he'd never been caught before...he only got caught because agents decided to blitz this particular flight & check EVERYONE'S bags.

He had a heck of a false bottom in his suitcase & the drugs were very professionally packaged into blocks & wrapped with heavy tape & glued into the bottom of his bag. The heroin was in balloons & this whole mess was covered in grease in order to throw off the dogs (I didn't even think of that).

When the prosecution started their case...they spread out all the drugs on their table. It was astounding...they covered the whole table & were valued at $100,000 before processing...after processing...the value went up to over $500,000. Nice income...sure...but the risk...nah...I'm not so sure it was worth it.

The judge made juror #1 our foreperson. I'm glad she did. Juror # 1 was by far the quietest (13 of use went to a rowdy lunch...she was the only one who ate her lunch in the jury room) person on our jury. She stood about 5 foot nothing & was an Indian woman of about 50. She took her time & counted all our votes & read every count & made us all say how we voted...she did a great job...unlike the loud, obnoxious woman who wanted the job of lead juror...ugh...this woman was a Boston transplant...which should have made me happy...because I could have talked baseball with her...but it would have made me sick...because she was so obnoxious that I didn't want to share one of my passions with her & after being almost locked in a room with this woman for 4 days straight...I could have gone to trial for the violent thoughts I had about how I wanted to rip her wicked head off her large body & shove it into...well...we just won't go there.

Anyway...after all the waiting was done...I found the whole process interesting & worthwhile. I'm no bleeding heart...but I couldn't look at the defendant for too long. He looked so sad sitting over at the defense table with no case whatsoever. They obviously told him to keep eye contact with the jurors...he did get some sympathy from me...but only about that fact that we did a foolish, foolish thing. I kept waiting for his lawyers to mount a defense...but they never did (great dressed lawyers too...BTW...no public defenders here).

We think that either he didn't tell his lawyers anything or that the most likely scenario was that he had many more days in court ahead of him telling about his sources & filling in the big picture.