Trial Experience Part 1

Okay, so once picked for the jury, the 12 of us showed up Thursday morning and when called into the courtroom we immediately started hearing opening arguments. This was surprise number 1. I frankly still didn't know what the charge was for the trial and it just started going. Since we can't raise our hands and ask any questions, I pretty much felt like I was behind the 8-ball all morning. After the opening arguments, we pretty much established it was a drug sting and involved a gun, nothing else really new from voire dire.

Then the testimony started which from the prosecution was a string of cops who laid out the following story. An undercover narcotics officer had a drug deal setup from a woman after an informant tipped them off. The deal was supposed to occur in the bathroom of the Cadillac Bar in the Heights off Shepard. While staked out for the deal, the cops who had a deal set with a women smelled a trap when she said she was there alone but they watched a stocky black man actually get out of the car (our defendant). This was a suspected "rip" in which instead of doing the deal, the dealer is actually going in to beat up and rob the person who thinks they are buying drugs. This is one of the new terms I've learned this week.

Since the cops smelled a trap they didn't go in and let the suspects drive off and had a marked car follow them. When the suspects failed to signal a lane change, they were pulled over, arrested for having an open beverage container, and then by the rules the car can be searched of course. We got the testimony of the arresting officer, the K-9 cop that sniffed out the drugs (and loaded and chambered 45) in a hidden compartment, the undercover narc, and the crime lab tech that tested and confirms that the drugs found were cocaine and crack in the quantities of like 6g each. All very professional and very convincing.

I should say during all of this the defense attorney (hired, not a public defender who is certified and are generally very good) was awful. The prosecutor kept objecting and getting them sustained by the judge, he didn't seem to know what he was doing, and asked terrible questions. Frankly, the entire jury actually felt sorry for the defendant because he clearly wasn't getting adequate representation and it was all his fault.

When they prosecution rested, the awful defense lawyer put THE DEFENDANT ON THE STAND! To the shock of all of the jury really. The sum total of the defense was literally the defendant stating that, while he testified to his prior convictions to "be honest with us", he knew nothing about the drugs, the drug deal, the gun, and he would never do anything like this. But under cross-examination, he then admitted knowing about the drug deal his friend whom he has had relations with setup with the cops and was generally not believable to the jury. The defense attorney was trying to get us to believe that he really did signal, the cops were lying, and everything should be thrown out. Umm... didn't work, not convinced.

Testimony ended at the end of the day Wednesday and Thursday morning we were finally read off the charges for us to deliberate on. Charges were possession with intent to deliver (drug dealer) and an add-on for the "use or exhibit" of a deadly weapon during the crime to be decided on separately. As the jury we deliberated pretty much all day Thursday, the possession charge we fairly easily arrived at a unanimous decision of guilty in under an hour, but we spent most of the day on the gun charge. Since the word "use" is not defined we had long discussions and arguments about whether he needed to be holding the gun or have it on him to be "using". Ultimately, we decided that if we couldn't agree on the definition then we'd have to go "not guilty" on that part. Crappy part here was once back in court we turned in our verdict and then were polled so each of us had to state that this was our judgement to confirm that it was unanimous. Did not like that part, but at least all I had to say was "yes" and I certainly was not making eye contact with anyone but the judge during this part of the day.