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Another 2 jury stories:

1. I worked with a man from Garland (Dallas County) whose turn for jury duty came up
frequently. His first case was a civil case where 2 big money developers were suing one
another because a joint project of theirs never got built. Tons of excuses on each side.

The reason it didn't get built is because both of these developers had so many projects
going, they never properly communicated and got the joint project done.

They both had big money, they were both jerks, and no one was going to miss a meal due
to the disputed project never getting built. The jury hated both of them, but they had to make a
decision. They basically flipped a coin, said that Developer A was responsible, and awarded damages
in the amount of one (1) US dollar to Developer B. I split a gut when he told me of this!

2. In the other case, a convenience store in downtown Dallas got robbed. Months later the college
age clerk saw a man on the street, called the cops, and said "That's the guy who robbed me months
ago." The defendant was kind of a couch-surfer at friends' apts and couldn't clearly determine where
he was months back.
The cops had no video, no evidence of any kind against this man, just the clerk's say-so that he
was the one.

The defense atty asked the clerk who his co-worker was the night of the robbery. He didn't know.

The jury acquitted the unfairly arrested man.

SIA

When I was living in Plano (Collin County), I reported for jury duty at the
county seat in McKinney. For some reason they assigned our group numbers, although
it didn't seem alphabetical. We had to file into the courtroom based on our assigned numbers.

We filed into a courtroom where there was a prosecutor, a defense attorney, the judge,
and the defendant. They told us that no details of the crime would be disclosed during the
jury selection, but then it slipped that Detective xxxxxxx of the Plano PD Crimes against Children
section, was involved. Then the court officers mentioned pleas with and without an insanity
defense.

The defendant was sitting in front of us. He didn't look mentally ill, but his momma probably
wasn't too proud of him, either. I asked the court if the confinement period would be as long under
the sane or mentally ill decisions. The judge barked back at me that it was none of my concern.
As a potential jury member, I was only to consider guilt or innocence after the testimony.

I was not chosen for the jury - big surprise!

SIA