Clearly Dangerous?

I have had a very interesting week this past week. I was selected to be on a jury. Not just any jury. A jury for a trial on murder.

Yes. Me. For some reason, they thought I was a good fit for the jury! (Really, since it's a deselection process, they had no reason for me not to be on the jury!)

Brad was a bit jealous. He's always wanted to be on a jury. And now, being a police officer, he probably has a very slim chance that he would get to be on one.

The hardest part of this was not being able to talk. If you think about what you talk about, it's usually the events that happened to you in the day. Well, my day consisted only of things I wasn't allowed to talk about!

The case was a unique case in the fact that the girl was charged with murder of her best friend. It was a felony murder. Basically, someone died while the girl was committing a felony - felony murder. It was unintentional. We, as a jury, had to come to the conclusion that without the actions of the defendant, the death would not have occurred. Over and over again we heard, is that clearly dangerous to human life?

Do you think injecting heroin is clearly dangerous to human life?

Absolutely.

Will it result in death every time? No. Could it cause death any time? Yes.

We heard from detective after detective about how dangerous heroin is. We heard from the medical examiner.

What it boils down to is this: Would the victim have died, had the defendant not assisted her in the act and provided her the means and materials to do so? The answer is no.

I know a lot about heroin now. More than I ever wanted to know. I could probably answer all kinds of trivia questions on it, but I'm glad I can see it and know it without the experience. I don't think this will ever be useful trivia knowledge, but I know it. I was exposed to a world I had no idea existed. It sickens me.

We, as the jury, did not have to decide her punishment even though we thought we would, because the 2 parties came to a deal outside of court. She was sentenced to 10 years, having to serve at least 5. Apparently, she has another case against her for possession that will most likely keep her in for her whole sentence. But she's lucky. With her actions, there's absolutely no way the 12 of us jurors would have given her 10 years. After hearing of her character and her actions, it would have been a lot more. I hate to say that, but it's how we all felt in that room.

How could you leave your best friend dead on the couch without calling for help or telling your husband? I don't know.

Lessons learned = don't do heroin, get a lawyer if someone dies in your house, Brad shouldn't work in narcotics, and don't work at Jason's Deli

It was all very rewarding. I learned a lot about the judicial system and am proud to say that I helped our community. Now, back to normalcy!