QotD: Jury Duty

Have you ever served on a jury?  What was your experience?
Submitted by jacolily.

 It was an attempted murder. Naturally, drugs were involved. The defendant was mad at his dealer and went after him with a fish knife. The public defender in no way tried to prove he wasn't guilty and there were two eyewitnesses to the attack so that was smart, he was just trying to get the guy a lighter sentence (unpremeditated attempted murder) which was totally undermined by the judge telling us that being high is no excuse under the law. Made me never want to be in the position of being defended by a public defender. This being Idaho we were all for sending the guy up the river except this one older lady that was in tears because she kept personalizing the guy like he was her own kid. Eventually the 11 of us cowed her into voting him guilty. It was interesting to watch 12 people with nothing in common being forced to work together, vote for a leader and determine the guilt or innocence of this guy.

It's a scary amount of power we put in our citizens.