Counts are strong!
Hello friends. Just returned from the chemo office and Jack's counts are 2307. Risen a bit over last week. Grateful that he is staying healthy. From what I hear kids are dropping like flies over the flu in school, it is going around. I am glad that we all got our flu shot at the beginning of the season.
Jack's hair continues to fill out nicely.
My kids asked me to tell them about the trial I sat in on this week as part of the jury. This was my first experience ever with jury duty. It started out showing up in a room with 194 other people. The judge who presided over the selection came in and spoke to us about the importance of a jury in the process of our democratic system. There were 5 juries that needed to be set, which meant that they needed a pool of 150 people to choose from. At one point the judge stood at a podium in the front of the room and allowed potential jurors to come forward and tell him about any schedule conflicts which would prevent them from serving on a jury this week. The judge dismissed a certain amount of people who would not be able to stay. The rest of us sat and waited while our names were put into a computer then randomly chosen for the trial we would be assigned to. My group, 40 people, were sent upstairs to a trial room where we sat and listened to 2 lawyers tell us what our responsabilities would be and then we could at that time raise our hand and say why we thought we would not be able to fulfill the responsibilities, this is where your religious convictions, or personal prejudices would come in. After that was over the lawyers picked 12 jurors out of the group to serve as jurors in the trial.
The trial began immediately after the large unpicked group was dismissed. We were sworn in....
The defendant was a 27 year old male who was charged with aggravated assault. I first assumed (you know what they say about that word) that it might have been a bar brawl...then I found out the defendant assaulted his father, (further assumptions), then more of the story developed when the father took the stand, without having to go into all the details, father and step mom say that the defendant showed up at 1:30 am banging on their trailer door. Step mom says defendant was drunk, cussing, angry, in fear for their lives they escaped the back door and went to use a phone in the house next to them. Father and son meet up and as close as we could figure out father "chested" son, son riled up more and punched his dad, dad fell, sliced his head on something on the truck he fell by. Step mom calls the cops, then she comes out with a loaded shotgun under her arm and is screaming at everyone. Son is arrested for aggravated assault. Cousin of the defendant (who drove with him to defendant's father's house that night), that night states to the police he saw nothing.
Now the defendant takes the stand, his lawyer asks about his view of all these events. Defendant says the day this happened he had been out drinking, came home to his aunts house where he lives at 12 Midnight. She tells him that earlier this day his dad had come by the house wanting to claim some money he felt his other son owed him for moving out of his house without notice. Dad got heated, pushed his 22 year old son around in front of other family members trying to bully his son into paying up, this is where my heart breaks, the 22 year old son is retarded. So dad comes over to his sisters house where his own children are living, pushes around his retarded son, screams, berates, and disturbs everyone there. His older son finds out later that night what happens and is so outraged he heads over to dad's to set things straight.
I learned so much this week about myself. One that no matter how much I don't want to assume anything about anyone, I do it. I want to keep an open mind, we were asked by the lawyers to do just that. I know that once all the facts were revealed about the case I could make a judgement on guilt or innocence, but as the facts took about 8 hours to be revealed my mind jumped back from one side to the other. What looked so clear in the beginning became very unclear towards the end.
Another obvious observation was that we felt that the truth was twisted by many of the people on the stand. Remember the cousin who told the police officer the night of the accident that he saw nothing, well he gave a full account under oath of the entire events of the night. His story didn't match up at certain points with the defendants and that is who he was trying to defend.
This week was eye opening to me. First, from just being involved in a jury of peers and working to a compromise so we could enter a unanimous verdict. Second, truth under oath doesn't always sound very truthful. Third, things can get way out of hand quick, especially when beer, anger, and shotguns are involved.
One thing is for sure, I have added another family to my prayer list. May God bless this family with unity and open their hearts to following His path.
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The defendant was found guilty on assault, not aggravated assault which is a felony. Then was given a 90 day jail sentence and a $500 fine, both which were probated. That means that he was put on probation and as long as he stayed out of trouble he would do no jail time, nor pay any fine. From beginning to end it was a 3 day process. He chose to have the jury decide punishment as well as guilt or innocence, so it was actually 2 different trials back to back.
Jack's hair continues to fill out nicely.
My kids asked me to tell them about the trial I sat in on this week as part of the jury. This was my first experience ever with jury duty. It started out showing up in a room with 194 other people. The judge who presided over the selection came in and spoke to us about the importance of a jury in the process of our democratic system. There were 5 juries that needed to be set, which meant that they needed a pool of 150 people to choose from. At one point the judge stood at a podium in the front of the room and allowed potential jurors to come forward and tell him about any schedule conflicts which would prevent them from serving on a jury this week. The judge dismissed a certain amount of people who would not be able to stay. The rest of us sat and waited while our names were put into a computer then randomly chosen for the trial we would be assigned to. My group, 40 people, were sent upstairs to a trial room where we sat and listened to 2 lawyers tell us what our responsabilities would be and then we could at that time raise our hand and say why we thought we would not be able to fulfill the responsibilities, this is where your religious convictions, or personal prejudices would come in. After that was over the lawyers picked 12 jurors out of the group to serve as jurors in the trial.
The trial began immediately after the large unpicked group was dismissed. We were sworn in....
The defendant was a 27 year old male who was charged with aggravated assault. I first assumed (you know what they say about that word) that it might have been a bar brawl...then I found out the defendant assaulted his father, (further assumptions), then more of the story developed when the father took the stand, without having to go into all the details, father and step mom say that the defendant showed up at 1:30 am banging on their trailer door. Step mom says defendant was drunk, cussing, angry, in fear for their lives they escaped the back door and went to use a phone in the house next to them. Father and son meet up and as close as we could figure out father "chested" son, son riled up more and punched his dad, dad fell, sliced his head on something on the truck he fell by. Step mom calls the cops, then she comes out with a loaded shotgun under her arm and is screaming at everyone. Son is arrested for aggravated assault. Cousin of the defendant (who drove with him to defendant's father's house that night), that night states to the police he saw nothing.
Now the defendant takes the stand, his lawyer asks about his view of all these events. Defendant says the day this happened he had been out drinking, came home to his aunts house where he lives at 12 Midnight. She tells him that earlier this day his dad had come by the house wanting to claim some money he felt his other son owed him for moving out of his house without notice. Dad got heated, pushed his 22 year old son around in front of other family members trying to bully his son into paying up, this is where my heart breaks, the 22 year old son is retarded. So dad comes over to his sisters house where his own children are living, pushes around his retarded son, screams, berates, and disturbs everyone there. His older son finds out later that night what happens and is so outraged he heads over to dad's to set things straight.
I learned so much this week about myself. One that no matter how much I don't want to assume anything about anyone, I do it. I want to keep an open mind, we were asked by the lawyers to do just that. I know that once all the facts were revealed about the case I could make a judgement on guilt or innocence, but as the facts took about 8 hours to be revealed my mind jumped back from one side to the other. What looked so clear in the beginning became very unclear towards the end.
Another obvious observation was that we felt that the truth was twisted by many of the people on the stand. Remember the cousin who told the police officer the night of the accident that he saw nothing, well he gave a full account under oath of the entire events of the night. His story didn't match up at certain points with the defendants and that is who he was trying to defend.
This week was eye opening to me. First, from just being involved in a jury of peers and working to a compromise so we could enter a unanimous verdict. Second, truth under oath doesn't always sound very truthful. Third, things can get way out of hand quick, especially when beer, anger, and shotguns are involved.
One thing is for sure, I have added another family to my prayer list. May God bless this family with unity and open their hearts to following His path.
-----------
The defendant was found guilty on assault, not aggravated assault which is a felony. Then was given a 90 day jail sentence and a $500 fine, both which were probated. That means that he was put on probation and as long as he stayed out of trouble he would do no jail time, nor pay any fine. From beginning to end it was a 3 day process. He chose to have the jury decide punishment as well as guilt or innocence, so it was actually 2 different trials back to back.
Comments
I'm so glad to here Jack's counts are up and staying that way! Attaboy, Jack.
Love you all.
M.C.
Thanks for the update on the Turkish refugees. I'd like to know more of their story...