I have served on a jury twice, one civil and the other criminal. My experience is pretty similar to others. It is a learning experience, because you only get a vague idea of what the defendant is being accused, until it is explained in detail at the very end of the trial.

The instructions are very clear. You must make your decision only based on the evidence presented in court and the law as explained by the judge. This is your job once you are seated as part of the jury. And it is weird, because in life, you make decisions based on your feelings at the time and often times, after talking to friends or family about different options.

In the jury room, you don’t know the people except as you learn from the permissible chatter of where to have lunch and other topics. A lady in the jury was a seamstress, and I asked her questions about curtains for my house.

Inside the jury room, the floor person is selected. In both cases, we did well, as they were good listeners. In the criminal case, we were divided on an important issue. We kept going back to the testimony given by both prosecution and defense witnesses. And slowly we got to a 8 in favor of not guilty and one who just couldn’t decide. That’s exactly when some of us, repeated why we should find the defendant not guilty.

The one hold out in the jury, was a young school teacher, who said she loved teaching, and just wanted to return to her kids. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was to go against the rest of us. She blurted out, “Well if that’s the way you all feel, I can go along with it.” At which point, which I will never forget, a Jamaican man spoke, and said to her, “You have to vote according to your conscious, because if you don’t, you will regret it the rest of your life.” And he was so right. How could this teacher, so focused on “her kids” go back to the classroom, knowing she caved in to the rest of us?

This Jamaican fellow was saying, in essence, a hung jury is fine. And I immediately spoke, saying we were in no hurry. Others chimed in with the same message. We were bound to make our decision based on what the judge instructed us to do. With that in mind, our conscience would be clear.

In the criminal case, we found the defendant guilty on two counts, and not guilty on one count. To this day, I believe we did the right thing, based on the evidence and the law as explained to us by the judge.

In every courtroom in the country, the same oaths are given, and jurors understand the seriousness of their obligation. They can’t discuss the case with anyone. They can’t listen to the news. There most difficult task one day, might have been, teaching school, or getting their car fixed. Now, they have to be in judgement of a total stranger.

I believe Donald Trump received a fair trial. Judge Juan Merchan is a very experienced and respected judge. He read the instructions a second time to the jury, as they requested. It takes a lot to convince 12 members of a jury that he is guilty. Trump has the right to appeal the verdict and this will take months. He can ask for an expediated appeal, if he is confident the verdict can be overturned. I don’t think he will do that. Many experts feel he has very little to base an appeal. He will instead use this verdict to cast himself as the victim of a partisan judicial system.

Stay tuned,

Dave