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I've wanted to share this on here for some time now, but wanted to wait until my case was old enough to be forgotten (hopefully).
I'm curious if anyone else here has served on a jury, and what your overall experience was with it?
I'm glad it happened to me and it was a real eye opening experience. The judge was great, as were all of the staff. The food was good, the facilities were nice, the chairs were comfortable. I was absolutely floored by some of the excuses I heard during the original jury selection for not being able to serve on the jury. I was equally floored when my number was called and I was locked in as one of the lucky 14.
Our case was in the US District court. The charges included Murder, drugs, and other mayhem. The guy was absolutely GUILTY, and we convicted him on all counts. Still, to personally take part in possibly sending a guy in his 20's to prison for the rest of his life was very difficult. I wasn't alone either. I am not typically an emotional person outwardly, but sitting in that jury box each day looking at pictures of the murder scene and body, and listening to the parents cry will never leave me. We convicted him on the facts, the jurors all got along, and I had total respect for most of them.
The other thing that really struck me was the number of true criminals, in this case drug dealers, who struck deals with the prosecutor in order to walk free. It is hard to believe that this nasty underworld exists right here in our city, and that it is so organized and so widespread.
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