[coffeecrazy1]

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I just finished participating in a mock trial. A day and a half of lawyer presentations, then an afternoon of deliberation to reach a verdict. There were 30 people altogether and we split into groups of 10 to deliberate.

What a bunch of morans! I had an idea they were a little slow by the stupid questions they asked during the presentations - despite the fact everybody was told NOT to ask any questions during them. The case was interesting, and the plaintiff made some good points. But, the defendant was clearly in the right. I went into the deliberation expecting some idiocy and I got it. There was one person that agreed with me. The other 8 were adamant that the defendant (a very big company) be severly punished. They wanted to give the plaintiff (a family with an injured child) about 50% more compensatory damages than they asked for and double the punitive damages.

I had planned to just go along to get out of there faster, but I couldn't believe the stupidity. I kept referring to documents presented by the defendant - I might as well have been speaking Greek. My fellow mock jurors failed to understand and remember one bit of the real evidence in the case. All they could remember were a bunch of video clips. Some that supposedly showed why the product was defective and one highly edited clip of a deposition that made one of the defendant's engineers look like a jackass. I tried to talk about evidence and all they could say was, "What if it were your child? You wouldn't think 100 million is too much if it was your child!" Then they would all nod in agreement as if they had said something profound.

I'm glad it was just a mock trial, but I'm sure the real jury will be just as ridiculous.

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Here's the thing, though: YOU are the reason that there is virtue in the jury system. Juries are not decided by a majority decision...they must be unanimous. Therefore, as long as someone dissents, then conversation must continue. Otherwise, you have a lynch mob. As long as you stood your ground, the morans could scream until they were blue in the face about the "children," and it wouldn't matter towards deciding the fate of the defendant, except maybe reinforcing your desire to do the right thing.

And, call me a bastard if you want, but I would say that 100 million would be too much for my unemployed, non-contributing-to-society child.