[Crowbob]

The only time I sat on jury was for a murder trial wherein the wife stabbed her husband in the heart which quite suddenly ended the argument they were having at the time. She claimed she armed herself in self-defense whereupon the deceased stumbled forward into the weapon she was holding in an offensive manner versus in a defensive manner per the bloody handprint on the knife admitted as exhibit no. 1.

We learned all about blood splatters, splashes and smears, knife angles, anatomy, etc. We saw lots of bloody forensic photos and heard expert testimony for the defense by the coroner son of a very, very famous coroner with a european accent. Said expert was brought up from the city and was very, very experienced testifying. He was dressed sharp, spoke very well and as arrogant as he was handsome. The female jurors nearly swooned, of course.

A major piece of evidence, specifically an accordion-type door concealing the washer and dryer all three of which were splattered with blood, disappeared.

After two days of deliberation we acquitted the lady after one juror, whom I’ve known intimately every second of my life, finally gave in losing an heroic 11 against 1 battle. The pressure to acquit was intense.

Sure enough, a few years later, the slick-as-****-from-a-goose expert coroner was convicted of defrauding the county he worked for. The lawyer for the defense is currently in prison for hiring a hit man to kill another lawyer who sued him for defrauding him on a large land deal.

The missing evidence was never found.