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So it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.. Alot has happened and I don’t know if I can fill you all in with one post.

Update #1) Jury Duty

I got called for Jury Duty on one of my days off. After sitting there for 5 or so hours I got called in and actually was picked to serve on a jury. The whole jury duty was a learning experience for me. I had seen how criminal cases were handled in court shows on tv but actually being a part of one was totally different.

In my case, a woman was accused of driving with suspended license, habitual, and leaving the scene of an accident involving injuries. The person she hit had positively identified her as the driver of the car that hit him and ran, the car was owned by her boyfriend that she lived with, and it was parked outside of her house with a piece of the other person’s bumper stuck in her front grill. She was also a short woman and her boyfriend was a tall guy and the truck seat was pushed all the way forward when they found it.. just 10 minutes after the accident..

To make a long story short.. The woman was guilty, there wasn’t a doubt in anyones mind.. But this is where jury deliberations come into play. See everyone has a different idea of what their job is to do on a jury. For those that have not served, you do not just go sit in a room and talk… First the judge explains to you all the counts and “What” you must find to find the person guilty of each count, and this information is passed on to you… Then the judge explains what reasonable doubt it.. So this is how our deliberations went…

We move back there and pretty much everyone believed she was guilty.. And one juror even wanted to voted RIGHT THEN… I advised that if I was the defendent I would hope that no matter what we at least talked about it for a while before sending me up the river.. Everyone agreed and we started discussing the case.. After about 10 minutes the vote hounds couldn’t be held off anymore… The votes were counted and we had 4 Guilty’s and 2 not-guilty.. One of the not-guilty votes was someone who just felt that the subject needed more discussion before we slam dunked the case. The other not-guilty vote was from someone who hadn’t said a word…

Knowing that the guy was really voting guilty but just playing devil’s advocate, I didn’t really go into it much with him, but everyone else did until after 30 minutes later he “Switched” and became guilty… Now the other not-guilty… This person hadn’t said a thing and wasn’t talking. She wouldn’t deliberate or explain herself.. After about 20 minutes of hitting a brick wall with her just saying Not-Guilty over and over again… No reason’s, no justifications.. We sent a note to the judge.. Hopelessly Deadlocked…

Judge calls us back in and says.. In a case where a jury is deadlocked I like to ask that you do one thing before we rule this a mistrial.. Go back in there and discuss the weakness of your own argument..

So we go back into the deliberation room and go one by one telling our weakness and then we get to Ms. Not-Guilty.. She proceeds to tell us again Not-Guilty.. We explain to her what the judge had said and she said…..

“I can’t find her guilty because I wasn’t there.. I don’t know what happened.. I didn’t see it.. I wasn’t standing there when it happened so I can’t vote guilty as I didn’t see it…”

Ok.. The brick wall had explained itself.. And we spent the next 30 minutes explaining to her what her job was and that if she was there she wouldn’t had been allowed to sit… We even asked her.. Do you think she did it.. And she said yes.. We asked her if you think it’s possible that her story was true that someone stole the truck, got in the accident and returned the truck to her driveway?.. She said she didn’t believe the story.. So she didn’t have a reasonable doubt as defined by the law.. She just wouldn’t vote guilty because she didn’t see it happened. We explained to her why this is not justice and why she should never serve on another jury again as this is unfair to the system and sent out our last hopelessly deadlocked note.

Judge gives us a parting gift, calls a mistrial and we all go home… Most of us are fuming and ready to kill a certain juror…

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Side Note: Single Men.. Go hang out at the court house.. Get yourself busted for DUI or something as there are tons of Cute-Female Lawyers without wedding/engagment rings on around there…
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Update #2) New Car Smell

Gotta love that new car smell.. Especially when it is your own new car.. And for those of you not in the know yet.. I just got a 2004 Honda Accord EX with Leather, V6, XM and navigation system.. Damn it’s a nice car.. Very comfortable, faster than an RX-8/GSR/RSX-TypeS and so on…

Now the only problem is though that I keep wanting to customize it.. And being that it is a new car most of the quality components arent ready yet.. They have a pair of Altezza tail lights for the rear, but they are ugly, they have some black housed projector lights, but they look cheap, and can’t even get a comfirmation on what CAI works with the V6-Auto-Sedan…

So I’m itching to modify the car but I keep stopping myself as it’s still first run products and I know within a few months the products will get better and I will want them instead…

Update #3) Matthew

Matthew is doing well.. He is going to be a little hell hound when he can crawl as he is already trying to get away and run around the house.. He is soo inquistive and likes to stare and get involved with everything.. He discovered the wiggles the other day and enjoyed the show and his mother keeps forcing him to watch those baby einsteins.. Personally I like the wiggles better as they seem more fun…

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I’m sure there are more updates I should do.. but at this time I’m going to leave it at this.. Hopefully I will update you all sooner next time..