Guilty

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

The trial started and ended. The jury listened to testimony from three witnesses. They heard the 911 call. They saw the photos. They went to deliberate. Keith was thinking not guilty at that point – especially since the jury had been instructed to understand that the defendant did not have to prove his innocence, but the prosecution and evidence had to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (just like TV!)

Keith (and the other jurors) felt as though he had done it (destruction of property type stuff) and the story against him made logical sense, but it was still a ‘he said, she said’ type of situation – no definitive proof. It turns out 7 jurors thought guilty and 5 thought not guilty. There was a lot of conversation. People were very interested in discussing what they heard and what conclusions they drew. Even though they didn’t agree on the verdict right away, they were all willing to hear everyone out. Keith happened to be the last one into the deliberation room (shortly before lunch. They put in their orders for Jimmy John’s before going in. Jurors get lunch if they are deliberating through the lunch hour), so he ended up being the one using the computer to re-view the exhibit pictures and the 911 call.

They talked and listened. They looked at the photos. They considered. They relistened to the 911 call – and relistened. They zoomed in on the photos. They relistened. Nearly twenty times, they sat silently and listened. And they heard a tiny something. The background sound made them realize they had been hearing the words in the call wrong. The caller wasn’t calling to report the damage of property, she called because the defendant was out of control and when she said he did something (I don’t know if I can or should be more specific) it wasn’t a report of something that had happened, it was her responding to him doing it right then.

Bam. Proof. It took several more listens and more discussion for all to agree.

Keith and I agreed that it was really lame of the prosecutor not to have figured that out and brought it to the attention of the jury (just like TV). Keith thought it was a great experience, and probably the best way to do jury duty. One day processing and learning about the system and another day as a juror and then done.

[The potd is not his courtroom, but the empty one next door that the sheriff allowed him to photograph. No phones or cameras in the active courtroom.]