MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Well, I had an exciting last couple weeks.

I got called for jury duty, and went down there thinking I'd be in the majority that just get sent home... or assigned to some parking violation that would wrap up in a day... but no... I'm picked on a jury to sit on the trial of a kingpin drug dealer who was the point of entry for cocaine to the entire South West region of United States who was busted in a massive sting operation. The trial dragged on with every element that makes a great movie.

There were double crossing informants, other drug importers cooperating with the DEA to take out their competition, patsy pawns taking raps trying to protect the boss man, snitches in jail testifying to reduce their own sentences, recorded murder threats as retaliation for some of the above transgressions, under cover agents wearing wires and transmitters, hidden camera video, money trails, questionable evidence from questionable warrants we were supposed to scratch from our minds, car switching and lost tails, all culminating in a giant SWAT and DEA arrest raid complete with grenades and overwhelming fire power to take this guy into custody. Saw with my own eyes bricks of pure cocaine worth three hundred thousand dollars a piece. The whole shabang. Was better than an episode of CSI.

After all that trail, evidence, cross examination and whatnot, because this particular boss was so very careful with his steps, we deliberated for an entire extra day to coalesce and understand enough connections to overcome our reasonable doubts to find him guilty, and after delivering this verdict, then we moved into the "punishment" phase of the trial.

After the punishment testimony was done, again we deliberated for the last part of yesterday, and the entire day today, being hung up by one juror who wanted to give him the lightest sentence possible... 15 years... and others who wanted the maximum... life. We poured over the evidence again and again trying to decide if he was yet another guilty pawn set-up as patsy or truly THE true bossman himself after all, and just as we were literally signing our verdict... literally minutes away from handing it out to the judge... The guy, obviously worried he would do worse with our verdict than pleading guilty himself, changed his plea to guilty in a deal with the DEA and prosecutors, and we were thanked and excused. Had he waited just a couple more minutes, he would have spent the rest of his natural life in jail... but instead he got twenty five years... less than the sentence his pawns are serving who were busted, some who coped pleas to testify against him, and some who kept their mouths shut and took the fall to protect him.

All in all, I gotta say it restored my faith in juries. I always pictured a bunch of unemployed shlubs in a hurry to deal out a verdict so they could get home to see the next installment of American Idol. Instead, everyone in that room took their duty seriously, and tried their best to understand the evidence, piece together in their mind the charge, and render justice they could sleep with.

Whew. I'm exhausted.