Just Finished Jury Duty on the Case inovlving the Elderly War Veteran

I just meant that giving him life specifically for the pupose of "sending a message," presumably to other would-be criminals, is foolish.

 

I agree with you. But I would note that jury duty DOES result in considerable increased difficulties in many people's life. There's the work angle. Yes, you can't technically be negatively impacted (fired, demoted, whatever), but in reality it clearly will impact your work meaningfully. I've been on a jury before, the trial took a week, and I was therefor multiple weeks behind on various projects when I returned. And this was with working at night after jury duty as well. It just is what it is, and that makes it difficult. Then there's the personal aspect. People have lives planned. Tickets bought. Dinners scheduled. Kids events or activities to attend, etc.

I'm not arguing for another system... and again agree with what you wrote... but just pointing out some things that make jury duty a hassle, and which therefor leads to negative conotations.

 

In the child rape case I juried on, there was one guy who was a father of young daughters (as was I, even then), who wanted to give the rapist the death penalty, only that wasn't one of our options. He went off in a huff for a little while he was so upset we wouldn't max out the penalty and had to come back to apologize to the group. On the other end, we had a lady who thought anything over 10 years was harsh (I think the min was 5). I started at 15. We ultimately settled on 20. But, man, even assuming he gets parole after 10 years, that's 10 years in prison. That's a long ass time. It's a crazy conversation to have with eleven strangers, "Should we put this guy in a hole for a long time, or forever?"

 

Try telling that to a Texas jury when they slam your ass with 60 years...see how far it gets you.

 

As I said I am not going to question the facts, verdict or sentence but I personally don't feel it was proper to shake the victims hand, even after the verdict, or to be praising the victim for his bravery.

 

Yes because we all know that murder is a lesser crime than aggravated assault.

 

Good for the jury. The assailant should be isolated from society asap.

 

I was following this story. What was the evidence that made it obvious that the guy committed the crime?

 

My hate for my one experience was I spent a whole day there, and wasn't selected. I was pissed, especially given how they managed to pick at least one person who was clearly biased.

 

I heard about the trial on the news, and the crime that was committed was just horrible. I viewed the attack on this man to be similar to a near fatal attack on a defenseless baby. It made me angry just hearing a few details of this crime. Beating up defenseless old people and children are crimes that really disgust me. If I had been on the jury I probably would have been pushing hard for life in prison.

 

That's a horrible thing to say