Juror #44

Yes sir-eee

That was my number 44 -- surely since they only needed 12 people, #44 wouldn't even be considered for the jury. Wrong-o, heck #58 was selected before they finally eliminated everyone from the initial pool. Anyway, my first time on a Jury was interesting.

I have to admit, the lawyers really did a good job of selecting us, as we were all really level headed and pretty much on the same page. Then there was Juror #16 - we were all secretly praying that she would not be put on the Jury. Every time they asked a question she would pipe up with some contradicting statement. Oh the headache that would have caused (thankfully she was eliminated).

The charge in the case was indecency with a child. We found out afterwards that this was the second go at this trial, as the first trail ended in a hung jury. It's heart wrenching how prevalent this type of behavior is. More than half of the 65 people selected for the initial panel had some 'experience' with this charge, and so the question had to become 'could you put your feelings aside?'

I think that is dreadful -- it broke my heart to see some people simply break down and cry when asked why they didn't think they could put their feelings aside. I challenge everyone to pray hard against this, to bring protection to our children, and to cast out this evil behavior. We found the guy guilty, that didn't take long (8 minutes I think). Sentencing was a bit harder, ultimately we all agreed 6 months in jail, 10 years probation with required therapy for those 10 years, and a 10K fine was adequate.

The one good thing about my call to duty, was I was able to be home every night this week, and Amy and I were able to have a wonderful Birthday celebration for her Thursday night! I couldn't resist giving her her present a day early; as she really needed it! I'll let her tell you all about it, I'll just say she dropped the perfect hint for me this year, leaving no doubt as to what she desired.

There are some wonderful pictures on Claire's Blog of our fun times with Aunt Lori last week -- coming soon pics of Claire's first Yachting!

Have a good weekend!