[dillywho]

I served on two criminal trials in Texas several years ago. I was actually shocked that I ended up on one of them. It was a murder case involving a shooting. I was asked if I was afraid of guns, which I was at the time. Then they wanted to know why. It was because I had been accidentally shot several years earlier. I about fainted when I was not eliminated! Juries are really strange, though. This was a clear case of murder, but we had two holdouts for self defense. The defendant had left the residence and the guy inside was hanging out the door, one hand on the screen and one hand on the door jamb, yelling at him not to come back again. The defendant said that when he got to his car, the guy was still yelling. He said, "When he called me a black *******, I reached into my glove box, got my gun, and I shot him dead." We ended up a hung jury because of those two. Instead of a retrial, the guy tppk a plea bargain.

The other trial was a child molestation case committed by a relative on a toddler. Sad!! Another messed up case...or so we thought. We had one gal that would not send the guy away for 20 years because her brother had been incarcerated and she "wouldn't do that to ANYBODY". We ended up settling for 15 years probation. Afterwards, the DA told us that was the best sentence we could have handed down because had it been for the 20 years prison time, he would have served maybe 4 or 5. He also said that what he couldn't tell us during the trial was that the guy had been messing with every kid in the family for the last 10 years; and that he would definitely break his probation. He then would be gone for the full 15 to prison. The judge sentenced him to an additional 30 days in the county lockup prior to being released on probation. The DA said that it would not be pleasant in there, either, since the general population usually takes a really dim view of child molesters. The gal who would not budge, couldn't get out of there fast enough when she heard what the DA said about probation being the better sentence.

Don't Mess With Texas! Probation means something there.