Not guilty!

This is going to be a short post, because I have a conference call in two hours to go over edits to the member magazine, and I haven't even started proofing it yet. Oy - didn't I say something last week about needing more time!?!

And there is so much to write about jury duty! It was an indecent exposure case. How many times do you think you can hear the word (insert male body part) in one day?

Add 100 to that number, and that's probably how many times I heard it.

Unfortunately, it was essentially a he-said, she-said case. Both sides had some inconsistencies, and some lines that just didn't add up. And I hate to say we found the guy "not guilty." It's not that we thought he was innocent. We just didn't think you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was him that did it.

That was hard to disappoint the woman who brought the charges, because I do believe the experience happened to her. I also hated the judging part. I learned on Friday that I do NOT like to be a part of a jury. Contrary to what some girls I went to high school might say about me, I don't like to make judgements on others. At least, not when it really counts!

We ended up deliberating for about 10 minutes on this decision. And it would have been faster if two of the other jurors had let us take a straw poll from the start on how we found the defendant. But they wanted to talk out why they thought the prosecution didn't convince them, and all the things the prosecutor could have done to convince them.

So once we let them get that out of their system, we all agreed there was just no way to prove it was this guy.

All in all, the people at the Alexandria Court House love their job. The jury coordinator was a hoot, the bailiff was really friendly, and all the security guards were pleasant. So I can't really complain much about the day. Oh, and my fellow jurors, both before we were picked and after, were very chatty people.

And, I'm being a bit too chatty now. I've got a magazine I need to get to!