Jury Duty, Part 2

So I was impaneled for the trial.

It was not bad, the jusdge was really good at explaining the case and what was expected of us. You know, being on jury duty is some pretty heavy sh*t - you are deciding the fate of someone with a decision that can affect them for the rest of their life.

It was a drug case. A pretty big drug case. They have to bring in all the evidence and show it to you.

I have never seen so much pot in my life in person (alright, I really have not seen much pot at all, but this was a lot of pot!) - I am talking about compressed bales of it the size of a milk crate and heavy enough to make the floor shake when they dropped them.

Then there was the kilo of coke - wrapped in foil just like you see on TV - a brick. And the machine guna nd all the rounds of Soviet ammunition for it. This guy was ready for anything, except for the cops, I guess.

It was kind of a sad story. Hi dad had died when he was young, so his mom was working to support all her kids and he started running with a bad crowd and missing school. Eventually he dropped out and started dealing drugs. My guess is he made a decent amount of money.

The evidence was pretty strong and he was convicted of some very harsh violations. My guess is he is going away for a very long time.

I wonder how much of this could have been avoided if someone had taken him under their wing back when his dad died to try and help him through that.

Now, his life is wasted and we are paying a lot of mony to incarcerate hime for well over 20 years. That could be a lot of money put to services instead of giving him 3 squares and a bed.