Was summoned for Jury duty the week of Aug 1st. I had become a US citizen just couple of months back. This was my first experience with the US judicial system. Was asked to fill in a form and asked to affirm the oath that I would tell the truth. Was surprised by the large number of people ( anywhere between 75 to 100 ). Apparently there are a lot of civil and criminal cases going on.
I organizer forewarned for the first timers that jury duty involves a lot of wait. That tells me the system has some flaws. Luckily they had a projection TV and started screening Village movie. Eventhough I had seen the movie before I didn't mind watching over again. Couple of times the movie was paused and the organizer called out 30 names in random by the order of some judge. The movie was almost reaching a climax where the blind girl is in the forest all by herself when it was paused again. This time my name was the first to be called amongst 30 chosen. After some minor procedure explanation we were taken to the court room. The judge and the defendant and the attorney were there. The clerk called in 12 names at random to sit in the jury box. The prosecuting attorney briefly introduced the case.
It was case bought in by the DA's office of NC against a 19 year old boy. The charges were taking indecent liberties with a child and committing a act against Nature. Some of the jurors were not comfortable hearing about anal sex and specifics. Both the prosecuting attorney and defense interviewed the jury and I was called into the 12 after one of the jurors had to be excused. The jury selection went on the whole day and continued on the next day. Finally they had 12 + 1 alternate juror as backup. The incident occurred on Dec 28 2003 and only now it is being heard. Whatever happened to the concept of Justice delayed is justice denied. The first witness was the victim himself. The witnesses testified the next couple of days. At the end of all the testimonies the judge explained to us what the charges are and what is the law is and what the sentence would be if found guilty.
We were off to the jury room to deliberate. We took an initial vote and it was 8 to 4 for not guilty vs guilty. Next 5 hours the deliberation went on. No consensus. We informed the judge we cannot unanimously agree on a decision. The judge declared the trial as a mistrial and sent us back home after 4 days. That is all to it.
Both the victim and defendant being boys ( 17 and 12) no big deal the claim of rape. There were too many inconsistencies in the victims story. In fact all jurors agreed that the defendant was setup. It is just the age factor that made the incident a crime.
