Jury duty.

[thomasng]

Thursday and Friday wasn't bad, we got through 2 crime scene investigators, and there was some interesting cross-examination. The judge even cracked a few jokes before we left on Friday night. The courthouse was filled with people that afternoon, since there were two high profile murder cases that had verdicts in that afternoon, on the same floor as us, and the ground floor was full of media reporters, and they were having press conferences with the attorneys, the victims families on the guilty verdicts in both cases. Media was blocking every single exit of the courthouse, which was quite annoying.

And we get a one week break.

[thomasng]

All of last week, all witnesses were police officers on the scene, nothing special, everything was repeated over and over again. This morning we heard the 911 EMS calls placed by the mother of the victim, and later we heard from neighbours who heard screaming, but didn't think anything was wrong. The pathologist also began testifying after lunch, and was explaining the autopsy. We still need to hear from shoeprint experts and DNA experts.

We were updated by the prosecution that they have another 28 witnesses to call, and to take another 4 weeks for their arguments, and that the defense should finish in 2 weeks after the prosecutor, to hear from both of the accused in the case, then to expect closing arguments to take place over a week, then to expect the instructions to us on Thursday 15th June, and to enter deliberations later that afternoon, which could take a very long time, as we have to decide on charges of first degree murder, charges of robbery, break and enter, sexual assault, rape and charges of committing indignities to a dead body. The problem is also, we must decide the guilt of each person on every single charge individually, and recommend sentences for each of the crimes we end up convicting them of.

Good thing is, the group has selected me as their foreperson, which means I get to read out the words "Guilty" or "Not Guilty".