You mean being Hung is a bad thing?

Since we last chatted, I had the privilege that few people in the world get to experience, I was the member of the Greene County Missouri Jury. I was juror number 4 in a class 1 felony Drug trafficking trial. One of my fellow jurors worked for a competitor and secretly snapped this picture of me and sent it to a work friend asking more about me...hmmm - don't know what information he was hoping to glean...

Jury Duty Feb. 2014

My fellow Americans, please allow me to explain jury duty to our International blog readers. I know it is a somewhat foreign concept as I still think Rodz thinks I did something wrong in my trying to explain to her about the trial at the courthouse. I can hardly wait to share the funnies that we can look forward to during Rodz's upcoming invasion of America. She is very happy that I am not in jail...lol!

In America, if we are charged with a crime, we have a right to have our guilt or innocence decided by our fellow community members. If you are a registered voter you can be randomly asked to serve on a jury. The attorneys and the judge ask questions of the potential jurors until they agree on 12 of them to hear the testimony of the trial. After hearing both sides, the jury meets behind closed doors to decide the guilt or innocence of the accused by unanimously agreeing. If the defendant (the accused) is found not guilty they are free to immediately leave as a free person, but if the jury convicts the defendant they are sentenced to serve the penalty prescribed for the crime.

In my trial, a truck driver from Southern California was caught driving his 18 wheeler (54 ft truck) with 1.4 million dollars worth of Marijuana (20 boxes - 500 lbs of Skunk 1 weed and 2 cleaned leaving only the oily buds -the potent stuff). The Police found it in the trailer hidden behind surplus janitorial supplies. The driver owned the truck, admitted he loaded the truck but he claimed he didn't know what was in the boxes. In testimony, it was determined he had owned the truck for 18 months when he was caught - starting a new career as an Interstate driver. He drove 7 round trips between two non existent companies.  He even drove the truck "deadhead" (no cargo)across the country on a couple of the trips. His Bills of Lading were filled out, but no one signed for the goods. Even though they were COD orders he had no evidence that he was paid on these trips to New Jersey. The penalty for class 1 felony trafficking can be life in prison with no parole. Sounds like an easy case to adjudicate. Not so fast...

I had the honor (or burden) of being chosen to be the foreman of the jury. It became my responsibility to lead the deliberations and maintain order in the jury room. We discussed the facts for about an hour and then took a vote - it was 6 guilty, 5 not guilty and one undecided. We went through the facts and after another 4 hours we voted again and it was 10 guilty and 2 not guilty. The sides were pretty entrenched. We asked to see some of the evidence and spent quite a bit of time trying to persuade the 2 jurors (they also tried to persuade the 10 of us that the accused was not guilty). One of the 2 refusing to convict was a lady in her 40's that was married to a truck driver. She kept saying things like "what if it was my husband being accused" and extolling the virtues of good honest truck drivers. It was hard to reason with her. The other was the youngest of our jury, he was in his 20's and made it clear he didn't want to talk about the facts, he was not going to convict the driver of marijuana trafficking possibly sending him to prison for the rest of his life. I didn't share it with my fellow jurors, but I did think about the 2 men that were arrested in Abu Dhabi for selling 20 grams of marijuana and sentenced to death.
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/9357655/British-man-facing-death-penalty-in-Abu-Dhabi.html

It is an interesting world. The judge sent us home at 10 pm and we had to be back at it shortly after 8 am the next morning. Nobody had changed their mind, and eventually at 3 pm the judge called us in where we told him we were "deadlocked" and we became a "hung" jury. It wasn't very satisfying, and I felt a level of frustration that I was the foreman of a hung jury. We met afterwards with the judge and then with the attorney's where it became painfully obvious that he was guilty and it was so egregious that the prosecutors said they would definitely retry him. The judge had a hard time  understanding the two holdouts sharing that the facts were obvious. What a tough week. I hope that justice eventually prevails...

Speaking of tough weeks, Rodz was feeling especially down this week. She wore an all black outfit to work on Valentines day and we chatted more than usual. She did talk to the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi last Monday, and they told her if she didn't hear from them in the next 10 days to call back. The only step she has left in our quest to have her immigrate to America is the Homeland Security clearance. I tease her about flying to Mexico and swimming across the border, but she says she is afraid to swim across the river...If it wasn't so frustrating it would be laughable. Hopefully I will have real news about her immigration when I update you on March 1st.

My new account in Kansas City is finally getting their opening order on Monday. It will be great to bring a new chain on board. The last tidbit of information is regarding my parents. On Valentines Day they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. When I called her she shared that she had been married more than half of her life..lol...I'd say. I asked her what the traditional 60th anniversary gift is (diamonds) she said she didn't know, so I informed her it was denture cream...we shared a nice chuckle. I know she is a faithful reader of this blog...So one last time, Happy Anniversary!

Sorry that I was a day late on this blog, I will strive to be on time in a couple of weeks from now. Have a great rest of February!