Jury duty changed my life. And now I finally returned to a routine after 5 weeks of high emotions and a lot of sweat and tears. The photo above is a famous burger place called White Mana that I got to go to while on jury duty. My grandpa took us here when we were kids.
I don’t know why, but out of all my brothers, I am the one that always gets called in for jury duty. I got out of it the first 2 times because I was just about to move to Spain, and then I was actually in Spain for the second one. I had no excuse when they came a-knocking again at the beginning of this year.
I was called in for March, but I ended up being sooooo sick, that I asked to reschedule. And of course they rescheduled for the morning I returned from my DC trip. I knew that was going to happen.
So I showed up, not sure what to expect. I checked in, sat down, and they told us that there was one criminal case happening that day. Great. Shortly after we were called upstairs into the courtroom.
A jury already sat in the jury box. Strange. We filled out a questionnaire. The court clerk called us up 1 by 1. And we waited, and waited, and waited.
Five hours later, after lunch, I was called up. They asked me what I did for work. I told them I was a freelance writer. And I think that’s what won me my place as juror #14. Because later I realized writing and editing skills had A LOT to do in all parts of the court process: listening, reading, editing, having an open mind, being able to process a lot of information, putting plot holes together, and seeing the story as a whole. Or, they just saw I had a lot of free time to dedicate.
The next 3 days were exactly the same. I learned that this case started 2 days before me. We still have no clue how many turns each lawyer had for dismissing and choosing jurors. They didn’t tell us anything. But they spent a total of 6 days, 6 hours a day, interviewing potential jurors and dismissing others. I survived until the end. And I spent the time reading A LOT.
The case begun. It was an armed bank robbery. Going into it we were all thinking, how is this even a case? It’s black and white. It’s yes or no. Why are we wasting our time? But as the case went from day one, to day two, to day five, I found myself in tears, heartbroken, confused, angry, sad, and a whole bunch of other emotions. This was not black and white at all.
And it showed in the deliberations. We were all over the place. The deliberations went a full 3 days. The defendant lawyer warned us before we started our deliberations to READ THE WRITTEN LAW CAREFULLY! Every word mattered.
And wow was she write.
They literally just slapped a 20+ page packet on our table in our tiny room with a 2-page questionnaire we had to fill out of the charges. We would submit that 2-page paper. Some just wanted to get it over with right away, fill it out, and move on with our lives. But I said, the judge read the 20+ page packet to us for a reason, and it’s here for a reason, we should look at it.
The 20+ page packet broke down the 4 charges on the questionnaire sheet. There were 2 extreme charges that the State was trying to charge him for beyond a reasonable doubt, and 2 lesser charges that the judge slapped on. As people argued about giving him the highest charge and moving on, I glanced at the packet.
That’s when my eyes locked on to grammar and formatting errors and inconsistencies between an extreme charge on the questionnaire and that same extreme charge repeated in the packet in its appropriate section. Missing commas, and the word “with”, that appeared in the charge in the packet and not in the SAME charge in the questionnaire, changed the ENTIRE meaning of the charge on both ends.
I pointed this out to the jury. Some were mind blown. Others couldn’t even comprehend it.
We asked the judge to clarify this error. We were brought back to the courtroom. And of course he couldn’t elaborate on it and acknowledge a clear mistake. He simply told us to go off of the 20+ page packet and the information within. But why was there an error in such an important document to begin with!? Who wrote this!? The defendant lawyer was right: read the written law carefully.
That was a game changer. Now, the majority did not want to give him either of the top 2 extreme charges after clarifying this error. Why didn’t they explain this to us from the very beginning? Why were there no directions? Someone’s life depends on ALL of this! Some people wanted to focus on the vague, extreme charges on the questionnaire and be done with it. What if there weren’t open-minded people on the jury who wanted to take the time to take a deeper dive into this?
Then this kid would have received up to 20 years in jail instead of a lesser charge. And trust me when I say, he did not deserve the extreme charges at all. There wasn’t even a weapon involved, and even the FBI, who takes on all armed robbery cases, looked at this, laughed, and said, we aren’t wasting our time with this joke of a case. The defendant lawyer told us, the State is only doing this because they have the time, resources, and power, knowing this kid had nothing to defend himself with.
So after this discovery, we began to analyze the packet together, reading it start to finish. But when we broke and returned the following week for day 3, the minority who wanted to charge him for the extreme charges did not even want to listen to me anymore. I knew this was going to happen. They fell back to thoughts and ideas that we all moved past the previous day. They began to forget everything we had accomplished. They know longer cared about the packet. They just wanted to focus on the questionnaire again and return to their every day lives. Even after the judge told us to focus on the packet.
I tried explaining all of this, that this wasn’t something we could simply rush, that our personal lives did not matter, that there were 2 alternate jurors waiting downstairs to take our places for a reason, but it led to them yelling at me, accusing me, and telling me I was wrong when I knew I was 100% right. The minority simply just didn’t want to hear my voice anymore after being the leader the previous day and blowing their minds beyond comprehension.
We were facing a hung jury. That meant the case would either be dropped, or more likely tried again by the State in a retrial. This would waste more time of the kid’s life when he should just be getting his sentence over with and moving forward with his life.
And another scary thought crossed my mind: maybe he wouldn’t get such open minded people on the next jury, and they would charge him with the first extreme charge right away, just so they could move on with their lives…
We took a break. I was shaking. My heart was pounding. I was scared that this kid would get an extreme sentence he didn’t deserve. I looked at myself in the mirror and something in my heart told me that I had to be quiet and silent today. I had to be a listener. And keep my mouth shut. Even though I wanted to do everything but that, to fight for this kid. Something told me to be quiet.
So that’s exactly what I did (for the most part).
And after that moment, the girl across from me took over, literally saying everything that was on my mind. And the minority listened to her. After another few hours of fighting and arguing and debating, we all came to an agreement of saying not guilty to the 2 extreme charges, and guilty to the lesser 2 charges.
When the verdict was read in front of the court, the defendant broke down in tears after the first extreme charge was announced NOT GUILTY. He didn’t even seem to care about the other charges at all. He knew he was going to be punished, possibly sent to jail, and he was still celebrating this win that he had been worried about, and waited for, for 7 years. The lawyer by his side rubbed him like a mother consoling her son, as they both celebrated with joy. He got so lucky receiving that lawyer from the State. She was a 30-year veteran lawyer. And she did a fantastic job.
And I cried. For saving this kid’s life from a stupid 2-minute decision he made 7 years before. He had to wait for this trial for 7 years while on house detainment, unable to move forward in life. He already did his time, in most of our eyes. He just needed to get a start on life, receive help and guidance, have a father figure, and become a good role model in the community. Jail was not the answer for this kid in this particular scenario.
I found myself sad that jury duty was over. It really did use all my writing skills to solve a real world problem. And it was beyond rewarding, something I will remember for the rest of my life, knowing that this kid’s life got a little bit better because some of us chose to fight for what was right.
