Jury Duty

I was selected to be a juror on a criminal case at the Superior Court. It lasted all week (Sept. 24th thru 28th). Some days we were there until after 6, another day - the day the case ended and we started to deliberate - we were there until almost 10 pm. Ugh, long days.

The case:
The guy was charged with armed robbery of a McDonald's in the area. The robber wore a black ski mask, which had his DNA on it and was found in a dumpster across the street. He claimed that he left it at that McD's at another time (because he worked at another McD's location but had worked at this particular one a couple weeks prior - mmm, hmmm). The day after the robbery he went to the airport and paid cash for an airline ticket to Memphis for a conference his church puts on every year - mmm, hmmm.

The verdict:
Without going into too much more detail, there were too many coincidences for me to believe him to be innocent. However, the District Attorney's office did not prove guilt beyound a reasonable doubt, therefore we could not convict.

After we gave the verdict and were heading out, the Lead Detective and an attorney from the D.A.'s office were there waiting to ask us some questions and fill us in on some important info that they couldn't bring up during the trial. One little bit of info they told us was that the day after he returned from the Memphis trip, the McD's that he was working at was robbed... while he was closing the store... by himself - mmm, hmmm. And guess what the robber was wearing? Yep, you guessed it, a black ski mask (& black sweater & said the same words that the other robber said) - mmm, hmmm.

I loved the experience, it was very much like watching one of the shows on court tv. There were 3 forensics experts from the GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation). There were policemen/detectives, witnesses, etc. I would be honored and excited to serve again and would say to anyone who was dreading it, don't dread it. It can be a great experience.