Originally Posted by
Lindsey
The drinking and driving laws are really abused.
Before I knew anything about Ron Paul or the liberty movement, I sat on jury in a DUI case. I also wasn't fully aware of my rights as a juror at the time. In this instance, the girl was found asleep, (possibly passed out) in the driver's seat on the day the street-sweepers came through. The keys were in the ignition but the car was not running. She was parked outside of her boyfriend's house, she said she had been dropped off there by friends and didn't have a key to get into his place. It was late on a cool spring night, so she went to her car to sleep. Her BAC was sky-high, but there had been no proof she had actually driven.
When the jury walked into the deliberation room, 10 people were instantly ready to say 'guilty,' 1 was undecided, and I was the only person saying we can't understand how you find someone guilty of a DWI, when the state hadn't proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she had driven while intoxicated. It wasn't surprising though, from when you fill out the survey first thing in the morning up until you enter the jury room - you are fed propaganda the whole day. The judge gave a 'pep talk' in the morning, emphasizing how much crime our county has and how it does so much harm, blah, blah, blah... And then they present you with the law that is being applied and tell you repeatedly that this is what your judgement is to be based on. The law is written with such a broad brush, that if you so much as have 2 drinks and crawl into the trunk you can be found guilty of a DWI, if they want.
After 2.5 - 3 hours of getting no where with these people, at most I had 3 people on the fence at one time. I finally gave in and went with the guilty verdict. The defense attorney made us all say the verdict, and I can tell you I felt like such a piece of dirt as I said, "guilty." I have never forgiven myself for the part I played in messing with that woman's life.
The judge came into talk to the jury afterwards, and one of my fellow jurors ratted me out as being the hold out, as to why we didn't have a decision in the first 10-20 mins. I've never gotten another jury duty notice since then. Before that day, I was getting lots of jury duty notices. A few of the other jurors, had been on multiple trials - supposedly once you serve on one trial in our county, you keep getting notices annually. So the lesson I learned, is that if you don't want jury duty, fight for someone to be found "not guilty" and they'll never call you up again; be a pawn in their game, and they'll call on you as often as they are allowed to do so.
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