Serving on a jury…

I know many jurors have written books about some of their experiences in the most famous trials in recent memory.  Sadly, my recent experience with jury duty is only good enough to be worthy of a blog.

I was called for jury duty for the fourth time in 10 years earlier this month.  Three times, I have been called to serve as a petit juror in Anne Arundel District Court.  A fourth time I was called for Jury Duty at the U.S. Federal District Court in Baltimore—on my birthday.  It amazes me how Court continues to find me to serve when there are millions of people who have never even been called in their lives.

And this time, I was asked to serve as a juror in a trial.  Oh, joy!

As it turned out, it wasn’t too bad.  It was a four-day civil trial with a 6-person jury and 2 alternates focused on monetary damages from an auto accident that occurred on New Years’ Eve 2011.  And somehow yours truly passed the mustard to serve as a juror.

Did I mention that my father worked in Auto claims adjustment for most of his work life, and I frequently heard about work when he came home from dinner?  Maybe the prosecution or defense would have found grounds to excuse me had they known that.  But they never asked that question during the selection process.  Luckily for them, it didn’t matter.  But I did make it a point to mention that fact to the judge after the trial.

The bottom line is that it was a classic situation.  An all-white jury judging a case in which the Plaintiffs and Prosecution were old and white, and the defendant and his attorney were younger and African-American.  And yes, the Defense Attorney did make an issue of that to the judge to no avail.

In the end, the case was a comedy of errors by both sides.  The Prosecutor almost put us to sleep, while one of the Defense Witnesses almost got thrown in jail by the Judge.  The highlight was when the Prosecution brought in an Incomplete Google Map of the Accident Scene, and the Defense wisely tried to use the map to confuse the Plaintiff.  But 4 of the 6 jurors (including myself) saw the error in the map (FYI:  we polled the jurors during deliberations, so that’s how I know 4 of the 6 jurors thought the map was incomplete), and the Judge called both attorneys to the bench and chewed them out over it.

We ended up deliberating for 4 hours.  There was no question in our minds that the defendant had caused the accident (it was a rear-ending BTW), and the biggest issue was the awarding of damages.  We decided NOT to give the prosecution the full amount they asked for (partly because the prosecution’s case was flawed), but the medical bills were paid for and some compensation for future medical bills was given.

I hope this is the last time I am called to serve as a juror for a LONG time.  And I hope I am never called to serve on a grand jury.  I can only imagine what the jury in the George Zimmerman trial is going through right now.  At least I got to go home at night.

The Duke Lacrosse Case aftermath… a new postscript

A few of you may remember the Duke Lacrosse Rape case from 2006.  Here’s a quick recap in case you don’t recall.  On April 5, 2006, at an off-campus house outside of Duke University, a party was held for the Duke Lacrosse Team.  A stripper was brought to the party, and at some point, the stripper accused three players of raping her.  In addition, when she left, several players were accused of yelling racial epithets at the stripper, who just happened to be a student enrolled at a nearby historically black university, North Carolina Central University.  The accusation triggered a major investigation by then Durham County District Attorney, Mike Nifong, who decided to charge 3 players with rape.

The resulting firestorm caused Duke University’s President to effectively fire the Lacrosse Head Coach, Mike Pressler and cancel the remainder of the 2006 season—no trivial matter for a team who had finished National Runner-Up the year before and was a favorite in 2006 to win the NCAA National Title.  The Lacrosse Team was shunned by students and faculty alike.  A group of Professors calling themselves the “Group of 88” published a controversial ad claiming the stripper’s side of the story to be fact, and at least one of the Professors failed 2 Lacrosse players for being on the team.  Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton showed up in Durham to support the stripper and ask for justice against the accused rapists.

But, from the get-go, inconsistencies showed up in the stripper’s story which indicated that she had not been truthful.  Physical evidence did not exist on the alleged victim.  Plus the alleged victim continued to change her story.  Quietly in December 2006, some of the charges were dropped against the Lacrosse players.  Then in early 2007, the North Carolina Attorney General, Roy Cooper took over the case, and on April 11, he made the stunning admission that not only were all charges dropped against the 3 accused Duke Lacrosse players, they were completely innocent.  The accuser, one Crystal Magnum, had made up the story.

The aftermath of this bombshell was seismic.  The NCAA reinstated the eligibility of all Duke Lacrosse players from the 2006 season.  The Lacrosse Team, led by the 3 accused and cleared players, sued the University, Mike Nifong, and the city of Durham for damages related to the scandal.  Nifong was disbarred and went to jail for his role in the scandal.  The Group of 88 has never backed away from their claims, writing a Clarifying letter in January, 2007, but has since gone silent.

And now the postscripts…

The Duke Lacrosse players who were freshman on that 2006 team, finally achieved glory for Duke as Seniors, leading the 2010 team to Duke’s First Lacrosse National title.  The freshman on that 2010 Championship Team just recently led the 2013 Duke Lacrosse team to a second Championship.

And Crystal Magnum?  She has been arrested twice since the rape allegations, once in 2010 on attempted murder and child abuse charges among other things, and a second time in 2011 for Murdering an ex-boyfriend.  Four months ago, she finally posted bond from her second run-in with the law, and she is expected to stand trial for the 2011 murder beginning on July 8th.

The Duke Lacrosse case was a full-blown scandal in many eyes when it came to light, inflaming racial passions, but has petered out as a story once the truth became known.  To this day, MSNBC has not covered the story of what happened on April 11, 2007 and since regarding the Duke Lacrosse Case.  It’s clear that MSNBC would like to sweep their involvement in trying to convict the Lacrosse players under the rug.  ESPN did some coverage, but only in passing.  Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton suddenly went silent about the Duke Lacrosse Case and ran away from Durham as fast as they could.  The last time Jesse spoke about the case, he was humiliated by Anderson Cooper.

So… what have we learned from this case?  Nothing.

As Crystal Magnum is going to trial, another high-profile racial case has taken it’s place.  The Treyvon Martin trial has inflamed racial passions again.  I’m not saying the truth is similar to what happened in Durham, but the same passions are seen now in Florida.  Ironically the George Zimmerman trial will occur around the same time the Crystal Magnum case will be tried.  I wonder if anyone else sees the irony of those two trials.

From now on, I refuse to let racial passions cloud my judgment.  We were fooled once.  If we are fooled again, we have only ourselves to blame.