A Conversation with
Elizabeth
1999
Finished or It Finished Me
From:
Elizabeth
To:
LMixson@PEC.com
Sent: Wednesday,
March 10, 1999 4:54 PM
Subject: Finished or It Finished Me
I have an unbearable headache as a result of jury duty. It finally
wrapped up today at 1:00, so it was three days. Because it was
three days we got told we would have no more this week. That is
good because I don't know if I could take more. Our "case" was
awful. Every May the city has a big "jubilee" festival. Last
May two teenie bobbers on their "first date" had a MINOR fender bender
accident with a black family, at midnight, everybody leaving Jubilee.
NO PROBLEM. Another van, driven by a nurse, stops, to see if
anybody is hurt. NO PROBLEM. So the three cars and six or
seven people are hanging around in the middle of this major highway
(speed limit 55) when a man, with a green light, plows right through the
middle of them. Two people were flung 50 or 75 feet and killed
instantly. Two people ended up in the hospital. The cars,
including his were demolished. OF COURSE, he tested two hours
later with a blood alcohol level over the limit. We had to hear
all the testimony from autopsies and see all the gruesome body pictures.
It was tedious. There were also expert witnesses, testifying that
at the speed limit "the accident could have happened to anyone."
The charge was manslaughter and two counts as well of assault. We
went in to vote at about 11 or so. I was the only one voting for
"criminally negligent homicide." Everybody else wanted
manslaughter which is a heavier penalty--plus it was two counts.
It was hopeless though. I got really angry because this real dumb
juror kept trying to shove the pictures in my face and said "This is
what he done." The primary picture I got of the whole process is
that its a crapshoot. As far as the scientific testimony, some
jurors just said, "It's not right." I said, "It's physics."
If you are going 55 mph you are traveling 80 feet a second. That
means you travel the length of a football field in four seconds.
They kept saying "he should have stopped." I kept saying
there was doubt a normal person could have. Just a few weeks back
a family was awarded millions of dollars because their daughter ran into
the back of a dump truck that was stopped on the interstate. To me
it was the same principal. She didn't stop. What he ran into
was a version of a "dump truck" i.e. a mass of metal and people in the
middle of the road. But he was drinking, so I think that carried
it. But you can have criminally negligent homicide with drinking.
I have not had any criminal law so the distinctions are not clear in my
mind. Anyway, it was headache producing. I think Julie is
justifiably nervous. If it is an adversarial trial--the expert
witnesses can be treated roughly. There's a book out on "how to be
an expert witness in psychology by Stan Brodsky. There are some
real tricks to it. I talked to a friend today and I told her
EVERYBODY's hands were shaking who testified. She said that her
prof told her "testifying" and "terrifying" are very close.
Well, more later. Internet was down when I got here and I'm just
catching up, but I needed to defuse some of this. Elizabeth
Updated: 04-26-2024