Jury Duty

Like a lot of people, I have been fascinated by the trial of Brian David Mitchell. I can only imagine how anxious Elizabeth Smart and her family were to get a verdict, but who would have guessed it would have been so quick. I think the jury returned after less than five hours of deliberations. I was called to jury duty a few months ago, a case of a simple assault, pick up basketball game gone bad. We deliberated for six hours. Yes you read right, six. It was insane. For nearly all that time the vote was five to one, maybe I was the one holdout. We finally found a technicality and I agreed to acquit. I wanted to go home after one hour, but didn't feel right about voting against my conscience. It was rough, I can't imagine sitting on a jury of a case with more severe consequences. There have been a few high profile cases lately that have had Tim and I talking about our jury system. Clearly it is not a perfect system but it's probably the best there is. How about you, anyone else served on a jury?