People are Stupid

I think I said "People are stupid" an average of 7 times a day while I was a juror.  I am generally and easy going individual, but I lost my cool twice with my fellow jurors in a two week time frame.  Why?  Because people are stupid.

Please ignore the rat nest known as my hair.  I don't look pretty in humidity.

This was my first time ever being called for Jury Duty.  I thought I would just go in for the morning and not get picked, and head back to work the next day.  I was dead wrong.  It took two days just to pick the jury, we didn't even start the trial until Wednesday.  Let me tell you, attempted homicide is not a fun trial.  I am still having occasional nightmares.

We spent three days listening to testimonies of witness, and watching a video from a red light camera that captured most of the event.  It was pretty much obvious that the defendant was guilty.  We had a video of him shooting in to the house (wearing a mask), AND a testimony of a witness who's story matches exactly what we saw on the video, along with several other witnesses that could back up the case.  You would think it would take no time at all to deliberate, right?  Wrong.

You see, the key witness is a convicted felon, rapist, drug dealer, and all around horrible guy.  The DA's office cut him a deal so that he would actually come and testify.  Because of this, one juror said he couldn't believe anything he had to say.  Even though his testimony lined up with the video.  The rest of us spent a day and a half using the other evidence to prove his guilt.  Stupid Juror still wouldn't say he was guilty and the judge told us to keep trying.  by the last day of deliberation we all gave up.  I brought a deck of cards and we all just sat around.  There was no changing this guy's mind, no matter how obvious the case was, and he told us point blank.  A few other jurors and I started to think that this guy knew the defendant, or was paid off or something, because it really couldn't be any more clear.

When the Judge finally declared a miss trail, he let us in on some more information about the defendant.  Turned out that in his 25 years of life, he has been convicted of several other felony's, numerous drug charges, countless assault charges, a few robberies, and 7 other shootings 4 of them being homicides. The DA was waiting for us in the hall and asked us what he could have done differently to seal the case.  Come to find out this is the second time this case ended in a miss trail.  He also told us that everyone that testified against the defendant was visited by one of his "boys".  So, that confirmed our suspicions about Stupid Juror.  We suggested having the jury sequestered next time around.

As the judge read the list of convictions I just cried.   I have always known that Rochester has a high crime rate, but it never really hit home until now.  I am smart enough to avoid the bad neighborhoods, and the news only reports some of what happens.  I have lived a lot of places in my life, but nothing ever felt like home quite like Rochester has.  Seeing first hand all the devastation that is eating the city I love from the inside out, was heart breaking.

Needless to say, I am more than happy Jury duty is over.