[Crowbob]

I tried three different tactics to get excused from selection. None worked. Murder trial. Husband v wife. He ended up dead with a butcher knife in his chest. Both had BAC > .4 the evening of July 4. We acquitted her (for two days the jury was stalled at 11-1 to acquit-I was the holdout). The pressure in deliberations was nothing like I had ever thought possible.

Prosecution ‘lost’ a crucial piece of evidence (which was an accordion-style door to the laundry area with blood splatter). Pictures of the crime scene were gruesome. Had expert testimony about blood splatter, anatomy, how long an obese person could stagger around with a knife stuck in his chest, etc.

Primary defense expert witnesses included a coroner who was the son of a (very) famous forensic coroner, another coroner from Detroit with tons of experience, of course, some doctors, a buncha other scientific people.

A couple years later the expert from Detroit was arrested and convicted for fraud. The lead defense counsel was a former prosecutor who eventually went to prison for conspiracy to murder for hire of another local attorney.

I tried my best, to no avail, to tell the other jurors that the medical evidence and the defendant’s story don’t add up. They (the other jurors) were completely twitterpated over the defense medical testimony and the unrelenting attacks on the responding LEO’s that were without merit, IMO.

I’ve always wanted to go back and fork over the cost of obtaining a complete transcript of the week-long trial and write a tabloid story about it. Grandkids came and interrupted that plan.

In retrospect, I will cherish the experience. I learned a TON about medicine, the law, jury-duty, social prejudice against men, rules of evidence, corruption, but most of all how powerful peer-pressure can be.