My Week as a Juror in a First Degree Murder Trial.

I have not posted for a while because I have been soooo busy.

My 8 yr. old son finished his baseball season 8-6. I was the head coach of his team. Being the Head Coach of my Son's baseball team was the highlight of my summer until just this past week (July 14-16).

On Monday July 14, I went to criminal court for jury duty. Now I know that most people do ANYTHING to get out of jury duty. Plus the fact that they only pay $17.20/day further exacerbates the public's unwillingness to serve on the jury. However, if you are called to serve, you must go. Now, actually getting picked on a jury is a toss up. Some get picked, others don't.

I was actually praying that I got picked to serve on a jury. Why you ask. Because I think it is one of the MOST important unique jobs us as Americans can do. Other countries have Legal systems that have only judges decide the defendant's fate. We have a great Legal system that uses the common citizen, the average Joe, to decide whether a person is guilty or not guilty.

Here are the facts of the case: 5 yrs. ago, 3 young men ages 18 (S.K.), 19(N.Z.), and 19(H.G.) drove downtown and the rear passenger (H.G.) opened his window and shot 4 bullets into J.S. age 24, killing him.

The defendant in our 1rst degree Murder trial was NOT the shooter (H.G.); but the driver (S.K.).

The State's Attorney basically said that all 3 masterminded this plan to go downtown in the early hours of April 20, 2003 and kill J.S. According to the State, all 4 were in the Latin Kings and there was a rift between one sect of the Latin Kings and another area's Latin Kings and an S.O.S. (shoot on sight) order went out on J.S.

The State's Attorney said, even though S.K. was NOT the actual shooter of J.S. (remember, H.G. was), since he was driving the car and IF he had prior knowledge what was going to happen, he is JUST as guilty of murder as H.G. is.

In fact the State's STAR witness was in fact the shooter H.G. That's right, the State made a sweetheart deal with H.G. and basically said that if H.G. would testify against S.K. (that he knew about the S.O.S)that H.G.'s 45yrs-Life sentence would be reduced to 25yrs. So that is exactly what H.G. did. He testified in court on day 2 of the trial that S.K. knew about the S.O.S and that S.K. was in fact a member of the Latin Kings, and that S.K. knew that H.G. had gotten a gun for the purpose of killing J.S.

The State had to prove to us the jury that S.K. had this prior knowledge.

On day 3 of the trial S.K. testified saying that he knew NOTHING of the S.O.S and did not know that H.G. even had a gun or that he was planning on killing J.S. He in fact stated that he drove downtown with his cousin N.Z. and H.G. to "look for girls". At 3-4am on Sat. nights, downtown, bars are getting out with loads of girls", according to S.K.
2-3 other witnesses also testified that yes in fact at this location (the location of the killing), there are many girls getting out of bars.

After the shots rang out, S.K. stepped on the gas and got on the Expressway where shortly thereafter, an unmarked police car with detectives pulled S.K. over and arrested all 3 in the car.

S.K. testified that when he heard the shots that he did not know exactly where they came from and hit the gas to get out of there, scared. As he was speeding away, he saw a gun get thrown into the passenger seat from the back and then he realized that either H.G. or N.Z. had fired the shots. Later on the Expressway, either N.Z. or H.G. threw the gun out the window, but police quickly recovered the gun on the road.

I had trouble believing H.G. as I knew that he would say anything since he was getting this deal from the State. Plus, he was the SHOOTER. He was Cold blooded. And he was the Only one who said that S.K. had prior knowledge of the murder.

At deliberations, I was elected foreman of the Jury.

After 1 hr. I took an informal vote. 10-Not Guilty, 2-Guilty. I was one of the Not Guilty votes.

That's right, I believed S.K.'s version and not H.G.'s (the Shooter) version.

I had More than a reasonable doubt that S.K. was even a Latin King, let alone that he had prior knowledge of the murder.

After 2 hrs. of deliberation, the 2 Guilty people changed their vote to Not Guilty after conceding that there was NOT enough evidence to convict S.K. of 1rst Degree Murder.

After I read the Not Guilty Verdict, the Defendant (S.K.) sobbed and sobbed and his family sobbed and sobbed too. I felt that we had done the right thing.

We received a Police escort out of the Courthouse to our Cars since the whole case was Gang related (Latin Kings).

I asked the Lord to lead me to the right decision before I made my decision and I believe we as a jury made the right decision.

This was the highlight of my Summer. This was a once in a lifetime activity where I was able to apply justice to a situation and prevent an injustice from happening (if S.K. had been convicted).

I felt proud as I left the Courthouse on July 16th, 2008.

It feels good to do the right thing.

So please I implore all of you out there, do not neglect or take lightly your jury duty.

It could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to exact justice one way or another.

Jimbo