And just like that, the trial ends. The case was dismissed this morning, due to lack of evidence and a bunch of other technical, legal reasons that I can’t go into because… well, because I don’t know.
The interesting thing about hanging out in a courtroom as a juror and not a journalist is that you know a lot less about what’s going on. They keep you out of the room when the judge and lawyers are talking about things that you’re not supposed to consider. This is all as it should be, because you’re not supposed to be passing judgment on anything but the facts as they’re laid out before you. And if the judge rules that some evidence is inadmissible, it’s a lot easier to disregard it if you’ve never seen/heard it in the first place.
After the whole thing was over, the jurors discussed things a bit while waiting for an elevator, and it’s pretty clear how we would have voted. I can’t really tell if I’m disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to deliberate or not. After all, none of us really wanted to be there, but once we were, it would have been nice to have had some resolution.
Thus ends my civics lesson for the week.
Leave a Reply