Mistrial!

After spending six entire days (well, really only 3 hours a day) at the courthouse going through the jury selection process, listening to testimony, and deliberating, the jury that I was on was unable to come to a unanimous verdict. It came down to a 11-1 vote, in favor of a conviction and we spend a good five hours explaining, bickering, and not budging the final juror. It was extremely frustrating to me to have been through it all and not finish with a verdict. I do commend the one person though for sticking to their guns and not budging simply because eleven people were, basically, begging them to; however, being one of three jurors who ended yesterday after voting "not guilty," I thought the facts presented and discussed today made it very clear that the defendant was, in fact, guilty.

Being that this is a public blog, even though nobody but those who know me read it, I don't feel right disclosing too much information. The case was regarding a DUI conviction. The defendant had just turned 20 when he and a friend lost control of his vehicle and ran it off the side of the freeway. Neither person was in the vehicle when the police arrived but the defendant admitted that he had been driving, attempted all of the field sobriety tests, and agreed to a blood test. He was, unquestionably, drunk and that fact was never in question. The issue was that nobody witnessed him driving and, even though he admitted to driving at the scene and proceeded to get arrested without attempting to explain that his friend was actually the one behind the wheel, the defense's argument was that he was not, in actuality, driving the vehicle.

It was a very, very interesting experience and an extremely thought-provoking look at how people relate to one another. It was also a fascinating glimpse into the workings of our justice system.