Today, was my fourth and final day of jury duty. I had to be in the courthouse by 8:45am. The case wrapped up after the last testimony of the day at 10:15am. The final verdict for me was reached at 3:45pm. Everyone else had reached there unanimous decisions after we went upstairs to deliberate. So thus, I was the last hold out for reaching a verdict because I wanted to be careful to the absolute letter of the law.

It seemed to me that the other jurors had reached there verdicts a little too quickly. It hadn’t occurred to me until at about 3:45pm why they were so fast to reach the verdicts they had in light of all the facts that were presented in the case. In retrospect I could not believe that I was so slow too catch on!!!

My heart is heavy with the horrible yet very necessary decision that I made not out of justice, but fear for my life. The trial I was involved in was a murder trial. Since the trial is over and decided with I can freely write about. I will write a more detailed breakdown about the trial tomorrow or over the weekend.

However, right now my nerves are jangled with the thought that I let a potential murderer go free! I did it because I was afraid of what his associates who faithfully came to the trial for four days in a row with scowls and threatening looks on their faces would do to me, the other jurors, and a very frightened witness if there was a unanimous guilty verdict. That one aforementioned frightened witness freely admitted that after she told the police that the defendant was responsible for the murder she was told that they were trying to kill her. She was the most scared frightened creature you ever did see. Every time a door would open or there would be a loud noise of any kind she would jump. It was obvious to me that they had gotten to her. Her testimony on the witness stand was that she didn’t know nothing about nothing and that what she told the police was a lie. In fact almost all the other witnesses for the prosecution whose original police statements was that the defendant was the culprit also magically switched over to that they knew nothing about nothing. It was obvious to me that they were intimidated and scared for there lives. Heck, if you saw the associates of the defendant you would be scared too! I do not know why it took me so long to catch on to what the others jurors were thinking. Me? I was thinking about following the letter of the law and they were thinking about wanting to live to see Hanukkah or Christmas.

Also I have to admit right now that my nerves are also feeling a bit jangled because I had to walk part the way home in an ice storm. I hate walking on ice. Whenever it is on the ground I tend to take tiny baby steps and clutch on to buildings. I am constantly amazed by people who walk on ice as if it is nothing at all. Me? I am praying every five seconds of the way to God and Goddess. So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, I hate ice and I hate the decision that I made in court today. More news tomorrow .......