Finaly finnished – 6 weeks of Jury Duty

[Sage Cat]

Some of y’all might have read in a previous post that I have been on Jury Duty since early January.

While this was a truly fascinating experience, one i will not forget, It was also incredible stressful. 

Here is a quick rundown for any one who is interested:

Jury selection started Thursday January 8^th. The trial started Friday, January 16^th. Closing arguments were last Thursday, February 12th. Friday and Tuesday (Monday being a holiday) were deliberation. About 3:30 on Tuesday, February 17^th, the jury went back into the courtroom to deliver the verdict – guilty of criminal negligence causing the death of a child.

Little baby Jason was premature and spent to first week of his life in the hospital. He then spent 8 weeks at home. He went back to the hospital in a coma and died a week later – he was 10 weeks old.

There was not a single whiteness to any one harming this baby in any way. Friends were coming and going from the house all the time. The extended family consisted f 14 adults and several children. All of whom saw the baby on a regular basis. During those 8 weeks Jason had 5 “well baby visits” with the family doctor.

Alex – the father – is from a very wealthy Boulder family. Alex comes across as a spoiled brat who has never been responsible for anything in his life. Molly – the mom – also from a Boulder family, was in school in Chicago, failed the bar exam, came home, moved in with Alex (they had been dating for a little while), got pregnant and got married. When Jason was born Alex was about 26, Molly about 27.

Molly was not present during the trial and was never talked about.

There allegations of drugs and cover ups. There are some very odd events and things no one could really explain. There was lots and lots of medical testimony.

I truly believe this poor little baby had a serious brain decease and would not have lived more than 6 months to a year no matter what had happened to him. Jason had several veins in and around his bran that were clotted. A large part of his brain was just holes, the damaged tissue had already been “cleaned away”, showing that these holes were at least 2 weeks old and some may have even occurred before birth. He had large areas of damage to the brain that may or may not have been contusions (bruises), also at least 2 weeks old.

Was there something wrong with the Jason’s bones? I do not know. But, his mother did have an abnormal gene that could cause her offspring to have sever deficiencies that could result in abnormal bones. The baby had 31 broken bones. Most were little “chips” off of the ends of the bones. But, there was also a broken left collar bone, broken left forearm, and a crack in the skull. Were these fractures or abnormal bones? I do not know. I believe there was reasonable doubt that they could have been abnormal.
 

What it came down to for the jury is that this couple knew their child was sick for about 4 to 7 days prior to taking the child to the hospital. Any reasonable person would have taken the baby to the doctor. Alex & Molly did not. Over all the jury felt there was no proof of anything else.

Criminal negligence was the lesser of the 2 charges. The greater charge was Knowing or Recklessly causing the death of a child. 8 jurors were for Knowing or Recklessly, 4 were for Criminal Negligence. We decided to go with a compromise rather than being a hung jury.

Afterwards the Jury had a chance to meet with the Judge informally for about an hour and with one of the defense attorneys for about 20 minutes. The DA left right after the trial was over. This was really great. They both gave us a lot of information we did not previously know. For Example:
Molly was convicted of “Knowing or Recklessly” in December of 2007. She did not have a medical defense – Just that she had no idea what happened.
Alex does have a bad temper.

I can’t begin to tell you how stressful this has been and how much sleep I have lost over it. I do know that because of me and my questions several other jurors came to believe that Jason did have some kind of Metabolic decease. A few jurors were really pissed of at me because I refused to budge towards Knowing or Recklessly.

 

No one will ever know exactly what happened to Jason. I hope I did the right thing – I am not sure. 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

WOW *hugs* You did good.

I may be a bit morbid but have always been fascinated with that type of criminal stuff, reading true crime books as young as twelve-I’d think if I had to serve jury duty I’d be glad it was something a bit interesting and not something boring. So, sympathetic but probably morbidly a bit jealous

It’s terrible what people can do to each other, and hard not to lose sleep over it. Especially when it’s that real. Reading your account, or in the paper does not make it as real as I’m sure it was sitting there in the court room. I think you can certainly rest assured you did good for Jason, and anyone who would not have had closure should this have been an acquittal or hung up as an open case for decades. *hugs*

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Wow that sounds like a terrible case to be on. We’ll help you return to normalcy a bit. And bunnacy.

[Scarlet_Rose]

(((HUGS))) I think that whatever you said or decided, a lot of thought was put into it and you weighed everything carefully. This must have been a tough case and it sounds like there was reasonable doubt both ways.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Wow. I can imagine that would be terribly stressful. Especially given the nature of the case.

I’m sort of a legal buff. I’m very fascinated by laws and litigation. I worked for a lawyer for several years and just loved the drama. I don’t really think I would like to be on a jury though. I get stressed out too easily!

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