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by rtschl
Wed Aug 28, 2019 3:31 am
Forum: Off-Topic
Topic: Not The Whole Book-But Should Be Enough
Replies: 35
Views: 9092

Re: Not The Whole Book-But Should Be Enough

Reminds me of a murder case I was on over 20 years ago. We had one juror though not a SJW, was a young college student that was an emotional wreck. I was the jury foreman and had to walk through each of the possible charges starting backwards. She agreed that it wasn't involuntary or voluntary manslaughter. We found out after sentencing that the defendant testified against his attorney's advice. It was during the cross examination that he admitted he intended to kill the person, which was premeditated. So for this juror it was just that it was too hard emotionally for her to convict him. But with help from the rest of the jury, we did the same thing TAM talked about - that she said she could convict if the evidence was beyond a reasonable doubt. She finally voted to convict. Sentencing was even harder. But this time a 2nd juror didn't want to give the maximum as the rest of us did. She kept stating "what if he changes, he deserves a chance". I said that is what clemency and pardons are for. Even though we know were aware of his previous 7 violent felonies she still didn't want to sentence him. I pleaded for a higher sentence as if he murdered or hurt someone again, it would be on our hands. We got a compromise of about half of what most of us wanted.

I asked the judge after the case what he would have sentenced him, and he said about 10 more years than we did so that he would be on parole the rest of his life, but that we are not allowed to know that as jurors. But not to worry. He was a felon in possession of firearm and he was going to be tried on federal charges next. That made me feel a little better.

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