Jury Duty: Flashback 5 - All Is Said, All Is Done (Conclusion)...

***NOTE: Sorry, this is gonna seem a bit rushed, but I'm pressed for time and didn't want to leave everyone hanging while I left on holiday. More on that in a bit... ***

Recap:

-The Daughter testifies, claiming her father threw the glass into the fire; subsequently, the glass ricocheted and hit her mother. Defense portrays the incident as an "accident".
-Closing Arguments are made, the jury is sent to Deliberate

It was like trying to put together a puzzle with various pieces missing at the end.

Fact: Mr. S and Mrs. S had an argument
Fact: A glass was thrown by Mr. S, and his wife got hurt

Only one questioned remained: Did Mr. S do it on purpose?

Deliberations lasted about a total of 3 1/2 hours. The vote swung far and wide, and only finally narrowed in the last half hour.

It's hard enough deciding on only one count of assault, but the 2nd count of "willful intent" was the real hanging chad.

We wished the police took that little extra moment to pick up the glass, and had a better account of the answers given by Mrs. S.

We wished that more forensics was done so that we wouldn't have to be left to our own devices and interpretation.

We wished that testimony from one didn't seem to cancel out the other.

Seldom are wishes granted the way we want.

Alas, absolution never came. The jury was hung.

The final vote was 10-2, in favor of Guilty. But since it was all or nothing, a mistrial was declared.

No one seemed surprised or relieved at the events, and sadly, it seemed like just another day in the Justice system for the civil servants of the courtroom. Papers were shuffled and stamped, The Judge dismissed us, and another case was gearing up.

I'd still like to talk about how we arrived to the decision we made, so I'll save that for when I return... ;)