I've only served as a juror once and it isn't something I'd care to do again.
It wasn't what I'd expected, that's for sure. The prosecutor was smokin' HOT, so much so that the defendant (who incidentally was on trial for a sexual crime) actually tried to look up her skirt. The arresting officer was an arrogant, cock-sure plick who gave the defendant such a self-satisfied "I got you" smirk on his way to the witness stand that it disgusted everyone on the jury - in fact it inflamed one greying ex-hippie to the point where he actually wanted us to acquit the guy so as to take the officer down a peg. The judge looked bored, the defense attorney as though she'd drawn the short straw, and the defendant curiously non-chalant. There was some tearful testimony, scowls from the family members, and long cross-examinations. Finally we were asked to go and consider our verdict. So far, so good.
However the deliberations were absolutely surreal. It was apparently not a question of evidence but rather who you felt was more believable, the defendant or the victim. One businessman just wanted to convict in order to get the hell out of there before rush hour, a couple of ladies were waiting for someone else to tell them how to vote, another wanted someone to convince her that her guilty verdict (based on her gut feeling) was justified, while the others kept running back and forth between third base and home waiting for a dominant personality to emerge. Meanwhile there I was in the middle, trying to be the good little citizen and fairly weighing the evidence to give the guy the benefit of the doubt since portions of the woman's story quite frankly didn't make sense.
Finally the businessman, seeing his chance at getting home in time for dinner quickly slipping away, siezed the opportunity to act as the alpha male and in short order had everyone following his lead like the pied piper. One by one their will cracked under this guy's bullying rhetoric (he even wore down the determined hippie) until they toppled like dominoes and I was the only unswayed member. Given a choice between hanging the jury (and having everyone turn on me like rabid pits bulls) or surrendering and going home early myself, I opted for an early out rather than deal with eleven angry a-holes ganging up to arm-twist me.
Needless to say the guy was convicted. Was he guilty? Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. Only the Lord knows for sure.
I wish I could say that the process restored my faith in the system but in reality it had the opposite effect. If that episode was indicative of most jury deliberations then God help anyone on trial who's innocent because little, if any, attention is paid to the actual evidence. Once in the jury room it's not about the defendant, it about the twelve people. It's a mini Survivor episode, with most people wanting to be told what to do, who to vote for, or how to act so as to relieve them of the responsibility for thinking it through themselves. It's a tribe in search of a chief. Alliances form and once the leader's been established it's a question of slowing but surely wearing down the resistors until conformity rules. Oh, and did I mention we could blow this popsicle stand by four??
