I served on a Jury this week, Ask Me Anything!

[RetroLounge]

It was a 2 Day Trial...

and quite upsetting.

RL

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. innocent, guilty?

spill the beans

[RetroLounge]

2. The verdict was unanimous

Not Guilty

RL

[7th_Sephiroth]

13. what were the circumstances of the trial?

[RetroLounge]

16. In a nutshell

16 year old girl accused her mother's ex-boyfriend of sexually abusing here from the age of 9 until 14.

RL

[Misunderestimator]

3. What was the case?

[RetroLounge]

4. 2 counts, Sexual Assault of a Minor

difficult stuff to listen to...

RL

[Maddy McCall]

Was there not enough evidence to convict?

[RetroLounge]

7. Nope, not enough evidence

in fact THERE WAS NONE!

They put a 16 yr old girl on the stand who said she was molesed from age 9-12 and raped from 12-14.

Then the defendant said, no, I didn't do that.

and that was about it for evidence.

Pathetic.

RL

[Maddy McCall]

9. That's sad.

Sad both ways. If it happened, it's sad, and if it didn't and someone is using this to get back at someone else, it's sad.

Sex abuse cases are so emotionally charged. I hope I never have to sit on a jury to hear one.

[RetroLounge]

14. It was very sad.

The girl and her mother both tetified, and contradicted each other.

The mother lied under oath.

It was sad.

RL

[Misunderestimator]

11. How did they even bring it to trial with no evidence?

[RetroLounge]

15. That's what we asked the Judge afterwards

He said he agreed with our verdict, and sometimes the State goes with what they have, even if it's not much.

RL

[Maddy McCall]

5. Yes, I want to know, too.

I didn't have to sit on a jury two weeks ago...all charges were dropped or the defendants pleaded guilty. I so want to sit on a jury.

[RetroLounge]

23. See other posts below...

RL

[Bronco69]

6. Give us details.

Since the case is over you are free to talk about it. :-)

[RetroLounge]

8. But you have to ASK me questions, hence the title

:hi:

RL

[Wapsie B]

10. Was there a token wingnut on the jury

wanting to push for a conviction? That's the one thing I noticed about the panels I've been on. Either there was a wingnut just salivating about getting a conviction and believed everything on the state's case, or there was a lefty who didn't buy a word from the prosecution.

[RetroLounge]

12. At the first vote there was a guy who said Guilty

He said he was positive she was telling the truth, his "gut" said so.

My GOP-Radar went off on this guy.

I mentioned that the Judge said look at the evidence, not your gut.

It took 2 more hours of discussion before he changed his vote.

RL

[jmm]

18. All the wignuts when I had jury duty wanted to acquit

on the most serious charge. I did too but for different reasons. I didn't feel there wasn't enough evidence to back it up, they didn't care because apparently any woman who cheats on her boyfriend deserves whatever she has coming to her :eyes:.

[Wapsie B]

19. But how much ya wanna bet

if it was a woman who killed her abusive bf, hubby in the middle of a beating session god's little people would've fried her ass?

[RetroLounge]

21. We had a pretty well balanced Jury, gender wise.

7 men, 5 women.

But only 2 African American, and the defendant and the plaintiff were both African Americans.

No older people on the Jury, top age was probably 50.

RL

[jmm]

24. One of the saddest parts was

a couple of women were just as bad as a couple of the men. He bought her a $50,000 engagement ring so he couldn't be all that bad...

In my case the pantiff and defendent were both white, as were ten of the jurors. There were four women, eight men.

[RetroLounge]

17. The State seemed to base their case on Herpes

The mom had herpes, she gave it to the boyfriend, and now the girl has it too, so hence, the boyfriend MUST have given it to her...

RL

[ausiedownunderground]

20. You get raped by anyone, anytime! - You Blab immediately!!!!

Anyone feels raped, you go straight to the authorities!!!! Later, if you wan't to prosecute, then the evidence is potentially there!!!

[RetroLounge]

22. You would think so.

The odd thing, the girl said she did tell her mom when she was 10, and her mom didn't believe her and yelled at her and even made her write a letter of apology to her alleged abuser.

So if it *did* happen, this is horrible to ponder.

But then they produced a copy of the letter she supposedly wrote into evidence, and the letter was obviously written at a more recent time in her life, was addressing a different subject. The mom said this was the letter. The girl said it was not, it was written later when she was 14 about Lying. and the defendent said he never recieved a letter when she was 10, only the one in evidence, about lying.

RL