Something cheesy this way comes - July 7th, 2008
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08:55 pm
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Tribulations
The trial concluded today, and to spare any suspense, we found the defendant guilty of second degree murder, along with a couple of firearm offenses (carrying a handgun in public is generally not legal for most folks in DC, and given that the murder weapon was a semi-automatic, once we found that he was guilty of the first charge, the others flowed from that).
I don't like sitting in judgement - who am I exactly that I would be in such a place? I've been called four times in the ~9 years I've been a DC resident, and I've served three times. I have a theory that I'm memorable but not immediately objectionable - I've had just enough run-ins with legal matters that I end up in a bench conference during voir dire (it amuses me that dire is pronounced "dear"...), but when they ask me whether I have any prejudice toward the prosecution or defense, I honestly answer no.
I've had 8 or 9 people ask me why I don't try harder to get out of serving - like maybe wear an NRA "Charleton Heston is my President" T-shirt or something similar (how about this one, for instance which is a takeoff on the old bit from Beavis & Butthead Do America...), or one of the myriad of other (legitimate!) excuses (project-based workload, caring for Sarah, etc). Except the excuses really don't seem legitimate - I do believe in our system, and I am not willing to serve, then who should?
So I do it. I bitch about it, but it's worth it, and I think that the presumption of innocence is a profoundly important thing.
The case in question is this one: DCist and WaPo have the background. I was surprised at the weakness of the defense- the attourney didn't actually contest any of the facts which the prosecution introduced into evidence, but instead seemed to create a gigantic FUD cloud through handwaving. I was totally waiting for the Chewbacca Defense to come out, because that was pretty much the only way his arguments could have gotten less relevant to the case. He told a story about a cat and a mouse in the outskirts of Denver which dragged on for about five minutes in his closing - it was sort of like The Secret of NIMH, guest starring Lennie. Yikes. Combine that with being unable or unwilling to pronounce the names of the witnesses correctly, insulting the education at Howard University, having the defendant attempt to change his appearance (glasses do make one look more studious, no?), and trying to create an impression of forensic evidence which didn't exist (hint: absence of evidence != evidence of absence...), and you get a sufficiently confused mess that there may as well not have been a defense case. I can't tell whether the defense attourney was lousy, or just didn't have anything to work with.
So the prosecution made their case, and given the facts at hand, there was no way to interpret them which didn't make the defendant guilty. There were a couple of jurors who were not fully comfortable with the implications of this: one said "I think he's guilty, but I don't want him to go to jail - he's just a kid." Well, yeah. That's true, but of course, there's another kid who's dead thanks to this one, so the idea of punishing the guilty doesn't really bother me so much. One juror mentioned that she would find it hard to go face the defendant and give the verdict. It's supposed to be hard, but everyone deserves the right to see the faces of those who are pronouncing guilt.
There were a bunch of people in the gallery for the whole trial, and based on their reactions at the verdict, I think they were family of the victim. I judged as fairly as I could, and I believe that justice has been served.
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  drained
Current Music: Rush, "2112"
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10:22 pm
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A lot more colors in my world
hat tip to TDP for the title. Good acoustic music, and nice folks with whom to play a show.
We finally picked a color for the second bedroom: there are about 15 different splotchy squares on the wall - I told Sarah we should go with a multicolor thing, and call it modern ("Mondrian-esque") but she didn't go for it... So Nob Hill Sage it is, and while we're at it, our bedroom will be Tropical Dusk.
And our bathroom is oh-so-close: once the contractor can get the grout stains off the floor tile (grr) and seal it, we're done. I can't wait.
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Mike presents some really depressing Peanuts panels - I think Lucy is particularly Sartre-esqe there: hell IS other people, and she's just the person to inflict it upon our hapless Charlie.
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  happy
Current Music: Jethro Tull, "Locomotive Breath"
Tags: comics, house
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