Winter Wandering

We spent this holiday season up in the Pacific Northwest getting a dose of rain and cold. In particular we got reminded how far north the 49th parallel is when all of us (including Zara) slept until 8am when the sun pretends to come up behind the clouds. It appears Zara inherited her mommy's skill of waking with the sun, so in general (except for one night to be blogged about later) we got WAY more sleep from Zara than usual with an hour and a half extra darkness in the morning.

We had a great Christmas at Zara's grandparents and there are an assortment of pictures from the weekend below. We also go to meet our niece, Zara's cousin Anja for the first time. Anja is a little sweetheart and it was quite a change to pick up tiny Anja and not our hefty (although by no means large) toddler. Zara and Anja played as much as 7 and 14 month olds can, but certainly next trip they should be buddies.

Since I didn't really get on the computer while in Seattle, I have a couple specific posts to enter but they will follow in a day or so while I get caught up.

Monday Already?

Busy, busy weekend we had with house errands, soccer playoffs (1 win and then 1 loss to be knocked out), neighborhood Christmas party, and a baby shower. But in addition to all that, I managed to get a half marathon in at the RunGirl 13.1 women's only race. This was kind of a last minute deal having only signed up a couple weeks ago to support Erin and run with her. I've been running but not regularly enough to call it real "training" at least by my standards. Also my first women's only race, not sure it made much difference to me except I now have a pink medal in my collection.

The reason Texas running "season" is the winter was clearly in our favor this weekend. It finally cooled off with a front Saturday night and the race yesterday morning was a chilly 45-ish degrees which also means no humidity. This is good for runners since you get to wear enough clothes to stay warm but it is nearly impossible to overheat. So run we did and Erin, Sarah, and myself all PR'd (personal records for the non-athletes) thanks to our friend Mr. Frigid. We REALLY could have done without the wind though blowing 15+mph and making for the hardest finishing half mile ever straight into it. All the same, it was a good run and an unexpected finish for myself at an official 2:00:33 (1min 40sec off my old PR). 11th of 48 in my age group which makes me feel better even if it is only a small race. I do want to break the 2:00 mark, but I'll target a race in February for that. Apparently, I am closer than I thought already.

But in looking at the results I found we were all beaten by an 8-year old. sigh.

Santa is So Not Cool

Today we went to the Harborview Yacht Club with our neighbors to see Santa with Zara and their niece and nephew. Santa arrived by boat, what else at a yacht club, and we had a great afternoon hanging out and getting a little into the festive spirit.

Zara also visited Santa for the first time... which didn't go so well. Big fat man in a red suit is certainly not the perfect babysitter even for a minute in the eye of a toddler. So this is our first picture with Santa. I think its a keeper, maybe I'll put it on our Christmas cards like other parents.

But she did enjoy hanging an ornament on the tree with mommy.

Trial Experience Part 3 - Aftermath

Again another surprise in the process, the judge and lawyers can come talk to the jury after the trial. The judge came in first and we thought she was a great judge so it was nice to talk with her after. Turns out we had reached all the decisions she expected (and she doesn't know much about the trial before it starts either) and also landed on the exact sentence she predicted. This actually relieved me a lot. I was sure of the decisions I was making (you know, beyond a reasonable doubt) but still to have the judge tell us we were "right" still makes you feel better.

We also talked about the awful defense attorney and she told us if any of this goes to appeal it will probably be because of his behavior and inadequacy of his advice. We also found out since we the jury were speculating, that the defendant was offered a plea agreement originally on the first drug charge (prior to the aggravated assault) of the minimum 15 year sentence if he plead guilty. If you ever need a lawyer DO NOT HIRE A MR. DYER WITH A LONG BEARD! He is a horrible lawyer and my gut feel is that he is a horrible person in general. If you vote in Harris County, I suggest you continue to vote FOR Joan Campbell who from me experience was an excellent and competent judge.

We also talked to the prosecutor, a Mr. Lewis, from the DA's office. He was also very competent and told us about the plea agreement originally was for the defendant had taken responsibility for his crimes. Obviously, he won't, continues to lie about it even on the stand, and ultimately is paying the price. We also asked about the weapons charge we had such a hard time on and apparently this usually is decided 50/50 by juries. Since the legislature did not better define the words in the law, it really does get interpreted differently by juries but they include the charge to try and get it in the sentence.

All in all I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to basically be debriefed by judge and prosecutor and finally got to ask and have answered questions we had from the trial.

The defense lawyer did not come to see us, with is probably good for him because we were prepared to tear into him. We may think the defendant is a bad guy, but he is a young man that at least deserves appropriate council and advice in things that affect his future and his freedom in such a magnitude.

I honestly hope I never have to be on a jury again after this week.

Trial Experience Part 2

So since it was the end of the day Thursday when the verdict was turned in, we were told to come back Friday morning for sentencing. Seriously, here was BIG FAT SURPRISE number 2. We (the jury) thought sentencing would include some character witnesses, wrap up, decide on punishment, and go home. WRONG! Turns out our defendant while out on bond for the drug deal got into a little more trouble revoking his bond. Although, this cleared up one thing for us. On the stand he had stated he got his car back from the police all torn up, but he had been in the same clothes and had a jail bracelet on in the courtroom and we were confused earlier in the trial.

But ultimately, Friday for me was the day everything went downhill. The crime our defendant was suspected in was another "rip" but this time not on the cops. All day Friday we got to hear and see the pictures of how he and two others stormed an apartment and beat the crap out of the two people inside, neither of which lived there as their buddy the resident had gone out and they were playing xbox and waiting for him. During the beat down they were demanding the key to the safe which of course they didn't know about. The apartment is probably owned by someone that deals pot from what we were hearing in the implications from the still awful defense attorney, but even if it was that doesn't "justify" the violent, armed assault and aggravated robbery. The beat down of the two guys included being pistol whipped numerous times and ended as the left with our defendant shooting one of them. The only consolation here is that he is such a terrible shot, from only a foot away the bullet only grazed the forehead of the victim.

The jury was all pretty upset by this, we really had tried to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt during the drug trial, but it was obvious now he is a really, really bad guy. The defense, if you can believe this again, was the defendant again taking the stand and saying "it wasn't me, these guys are trying to set me up." Ummm... again we couldn't believe him at all. The prosecutor once again ripped him apart in cross and also produced a picture from his myspace page in gang colors and pose.

After closing, the jury was sent in again to basically decide guilt or innocence in this charge although technically we were deciding "beyond a reasonable doubt" if the extra charge was "true" or "not true" since the trail was really about the drug deal. It took us in the jury all of about 30min to decide "true" and then an hour and a half to figure out how many years to sentence him for. Since we determined the aggravated assault to be "true" the punishment went from 5-life to 15-life, all with the possibility of parole which means he will in all likelihood serve much less than we actually give him. We threw out the minimum because we all agreed he had increasingly violent crimes and couldn't stand to let him out too soon, we threw out life because he still has a chance to change his life. We settled on 35 years and it is ridiculously hard to decide to send someone younger than me to prison for longer than we've been alive. Everyone on the jury was very emotional and no one is comfortable trying to decide these things.

It was this whole day that made me upset from beginning to end. I had previously been glad not to have to a "violent crime" case, only to find out it was. I wish no one had to do anything like this at all.

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.

Voire Dire

However you spell that title, it is latin for "find the crazies." In regular speak, it is jury selection. FYI for the readers, I'm going to write about service in chronological order because I think that is what I was most surprised about. It's not like TV in that you know very little about what is going on, on purpose of course.

Tuesday when the whole court thing started, I was number 37 on a panel of 65 for jury selection. Selection isn't really about "picking" jurors but eliminating them. The judge and both lawyers talked and asked questions for about 40 min each during which you got a gist of what the trial was about, drugs and police testimony. Questions centered on those two for basically can you be fair and impartial on a case dealing with those things. Some people seemed to have legitimate excuses "my son go tin trouble with drugs and I'm not sure", believable stuff.

...but then there were the crazies (or perhaps they were just plain stupid). I think some may generally have been dumb and couldn't figure out the questions, but several were just trying to get out of service. There were answers like "i think all drugs should be legalized, I'd never send someone to prison for it" to "I think all cops are crooked." Mind you these were all to yes/no questions. I was actually ticked off at the people making up ridiculous answers and attempting to debate the lawyers because they were just making it all take longer then it should. If you don't want to serve, then just say you don't trust cops and shut up.

In the end, the judge strikes everyone who gave answers that would make them biased, then the lawyers each get 10 free strikes for any undisclosed reason. I think this is normally where the "engineer" notation on my juror form would get me out of service, but with the unusually high number of crazies we ended up with two engineers and a probation officer on the jury which would normally be even more unlikely to serve. Regardless, I had a bad feeling the whole time and wasn't surprised when I got called to the box. This really ended day 1 since it was almost 5pm and we were told to come back in the morning for the start of testimony.

Drained

Tuesday afternoon I had jury duty for the Harris County District Court System. Harris county includes the city of Houston and has somewhere on the order of 4 million people in it since it covers the 3rd largest city in the country and then some. I say this because jury duty in these courts means a high possibility of something bad, real bad even and isn't just a traffic court. For me what started out as a "ha ha, hope I don't get picked and will still see you tomorrow at work" thing turned into one of the most emotionally draining weeks of my life. And I know for certain I didn't even get the worst possible things for a trial like murder. I will blog more about what happened probably in several installments later now that it is over and I can freely talk about however much or however little I want as it has been entered in public record.

But first, one of the saddest parts of serving on the jury had nothing specifically to do with my trial. It was the babies and children. Every day for the last three days while I go into or out of the 20 something story criminal courthouse there were lines of people waiting for the metal detectors to get in, the elevators, or just in the hallways. Obviously, this included many people from the lawyers to those that stand accused. But there were way too many (frankly one was too many for me) babies and children there obviously with a parent that is in trouble. It is heartbreaking to see and know that many clearly aren't going to have mom or dad home to help raise them and be there for them. And then at the end of the day today I found out the person I had to put in prison also has a 10 month old, a baby only 3 months younger than my own. I don't even think I need to say that I would never do something to put my baby through anything like this.