Wow, that would be difficult to do. Hopefully all the facts presented supported that decision. I think fulfilling this civic duty is so important and we need to trust our peers to take on the tough decisions. For all its flaws, it’s still a great judicial system.

Yes! Such a great drama! Human nature on display in its many forms.

1st time I actually was seated on a jury and it turned into such an amazing experience. I loved the process.

It was against Mongol Nation Motorcycle Club. They were charged and found guilty of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. We had many different counts of illegal acts to weigh in on. Murder, attempted murder, and drug charges.

@Tinocca Wow! That was a biggie. How long did it take to come to a verdict.?

@Sticks48 we deliberated for a week and came to guilty verdicts. Then the judge announced there was another phase involved. We had to decide whether the guilty verdict meant they should forfeit the right to wear their gang patches, since they represented a criminal enterprise.

We had to return for a few more witnesses and testimony and go into deliberations again. That took another couple days. It was quite a process.

@Tinocca Hell of a trial. I wouldn't have done well in a situation like that. My ADD would be kicking in all of the time.

@Sticks48 yes, it was a lot a sitting, listening, taking notes. Some witnesses were interesting. Many were dry and boring to sit through. And they were not presented in any logical order. We had to piece a lot of it together to sort through the details. There were 10 individual counts to decide on for the racketeering charge. Each one had multiple witnesses to wade through.
My back gets sore, so I brought ice packs to use throughout the day. Too much sitting still.

@Tinocca What took so long to reach a verdict? Was there that much information to go through? Did you have holdouts on some counts? I'm sorry if I am bothering you, but I have never known someone serving on a jury for a trial lasting that long. Speaking of which, how long was the trial before deliberation?

@Sticks48 no, I am not bothered at all. Yes, there was tons of info to wade through. Each of the 10 counts had to examined, witness statements recalled, discussions worked out, and finally consensus reached. We put up flip chart paper around the room to capture anything any of us had written about any of the incidents.

A few times we had to submit questions to the court, asking to review evidence or a video clip. That took more time, because they had to gather all the parties before we could go back into the courtroom.

I think they told us we had heard from at least 40 different witnesses, which they even admitted was more than usual. This was a case the ATF had been working on for over 10 years.

@Tinocca How many people were convicted and what was the sentence?

@Sticks48 They had done another trial years before and got around 81 convictions. This time they were going after the organization itself, so there was only one defendant. We voted they should forfeit their logo and patches, but ultimately the judge overturned that and changed the penalty to a $1MM fine. We read about that several weeks after the trial ended.

@Tinocca Thank you for your patience in answering my questions. I really do appreciate it.

@Sticks48 you are more than welcome, my friend. I enjoyed the experience and enjoy talking about it.

@Tinocca Me too.