Jury Duty-Day 1

I am going to try to break this down into days.  I just really think that it will help me mentally deal with this jury duty thing.  I had no idea how mentally taxing it would be on me.

9:00- The beginning of the day.  The judge picks names out of a cup to see who will be forced to endure Voir Dire with the attorneys.  This time I am chosen.  I was one of the last 6 chosen.  The assistant DA for the state starts with her questions.  Has anyone ever lied?  Oh let me rephrase that, "Who here has never lied?"  As I look back on it, I wish I would have raised my hand.  One man raised his hand.  He claimed he had never lied because he was afraid God would be angry at him.  Whatever dude!  I am sure at some point in your life you have told someone that you were "fine" when really you weren't.  I also wish that I would have wore a shirt with Bejamin Franklin on the front with a bandana around his mouth, and on the back it would say, "I have the right to bear arms."  I wish I would have worn  a suit.  I wish I would have lied and said I had a couple of doctor's appointments that week.  ANYTHING to get me kicked off the jury!  Anything to not have to deal with all of the mental anguish I have been going through for the past week!

Back to the Voir Dire.  They also inform you a little bit about the trial and ask if you think you will have a problem being on a jury for whatever it is about.  This one trial is the State of Tennessee vs.  FRH.  He is being accused of raping a 6 year old.  They ask us if we will be able to understand that she is 6 and may not be able to remember everything.  That there is no physical evidence in this trial just words.  Will we be able to handle that?  What do we think a child rapist looks like (yes, Misty I will post a picture.)?  Is there anyone there that had experienced something like that personally?  Yadda yadda.  When Voir Dire is over the attorneys begin to make their decisions who to cut.  They start with 40 people.  I did not verbally answer a single question.  They cut and cut and cut.  Then the judge says, "Ok I believe we have our jury."  14 people are chosen for a jury.  12 people will make the decision with 2 alternates incase someone has an emergency.

We all slowly move into the juror's box as we are called into it.  They inform us that we can depart to the juror's room after Mr. Smith checks to make sure it is "ready."  Check to make sure it is ready is the nice way to say, "Check to make sure that there is no one hiding in there."  The elevator that they bring the prisoners up on was right next to that room.  We figured that out on about the 2nd or 3rd day. 

We all sat in the jurors' room and got our "Juror" name tags.  Then we eventually got called back into the courtroom.  The judge asks the the assistant DA Ms. Hemenway if she would like to begin her opening arguments.

We listen to her tell us about the case.  I will spare you that information because trust me I am about to tell you all about it.  I will however tell you two things.  1.  The state first tried to charge Ray Harrison with incest, but that was kicked out because they are not blood relatives.   2.  The defendant's attorney tried to say this was just a ploy to get money on the grandmother's part because her and the accused were going through a divorce...more about that later.

The opening arguments are over.  We are sent to lunch.

The first person that they put on the stand is the little girl.  I will not say her full name just because she is only 7, so I will just call her S on here.  If you are just dying to know her real name shoot me a message on Facebook, and I will let you know.

I had no idea that they were actually going to put a 7 year old on the stand!  She walks in, shoots us all a smile.  She is cute as a button.  She is energetic in the witness stand.  She cannot sit still.  The judge asks her a few questions to make sure that she is able to answer questions truthfully.  He decides that she can, and Ms. Hemenway begins to ask her questions.  Before she can really get started, we are sent into the jury room because there are some things that the attorneys need to talk about with the judge that we cannot hear.  This happens constantly the first day.  Ok on to the little girl's story.  ( I will spare you attorney's questions as much as I can.)

S says that her Peepaw picked her up from her parents' house in Murfreesboro in his white car.  She put herself in the carseat.  She did not have any water with her.  She was by herself in the car with him.  A long time after she had left the house at one of the red lights.  He asked her if she needed to pee.  She told him that she did not need to pee.  He told her to get in the front seat, so he could see if she needed to pee.  He moved her flowered shorts to the side and her panties, and he checked to see if she needed to pee.  She says he tickled her with two fingers.  She then says that he took his kidney out (that is her name for a boy's parts) through the small hole in his pants and shook it.  Then white stuff came out.  He tasted it and asked if she wanted to taste it.  He told her it was sweet.  The attorney asks her if it was sweet, and she said, "No, it was sour."  She made a sour face.

When they let her off of the stand, they let us go home for the day, but not before the judge read us the admonishions.  Don't talk about this anywhere.  Discussing it before the jury deliberates would be premature.