Now I’ve seen a trial from the other side of the courtroom.
http://goodwillwinintheend.booklocker.com/2008/01/03/now-ive-seen-a-trial-from-the-other-side-of-the-courtroom/
I was fascinated by how the process unfolded inside the jury room for several reasons:
*No one looked at his or her watch the entire time that we were deliberating, nor showed any interest in the passage of time.
*Absolutely no overt or covert mention was made concerning the accused’s race.
*All the jurors had a good grasp of how the burden of proof worked in favor of the defendant and that if there was a reasonable doubt, the benefit accrued to the defendant.
*What I found the most interesting aspect of my jury service was that a number of the jurors analyzed the evidence just as Henry Fonda’s character did in “Twelve Angry Men.†With no prompting from me, they reached the same conclusions based upon the same reasoning that I had gone through. It took very little time for us to reach a unanimous decision.
