Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in a case that chronicled the unraveling of a powerful Southern family with tales of privilege, greed and addiction.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer’s fall from grace.
I guess this was a far clearer case for the jury than the legal pundits on the TV thought. Three hours is enough time to chose a foreman, drink some coffee, hit the can, take a quick sense-of-the-jury vote and then fill out the verdict forms.
6 comments:
Speaking from my own experience as a juror (x3), we had elected a foreman, discussed the relevant facts, and taken a preliminary vote in about 45 minutes of deliberations. We reached a verdict on the first one in about 2 hours, but we were told to go to lunch before we could alert the bailiff. On the second one, we came to a verdict after 5 hours. The reason it took so long, I think, was because one woman had watched “Twelve Angry Men” and wanted to play the part of Henry Fonda. The last trial took only an hour. We were dismissed while in the jury room because of a plea deal.
Good Times.
Dale
Now for the other crimes he confessed to while on the stand.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
The only jury I ever sat was a mock trial at law school, though I did make it to selection one time.
Weird: the DA was all for it but defense said 'no way ... '
Three hours is enough time to chose a foreman, drink some coffee, hit the can, take a quick sense-of-the-jury vote and then fill out the verdict forms.
This is so frustrating. At least the jury could have held out a little longer for a good steak dinner and ice cream dessert!!! Maybe even a hotel sleepover and a good breakfast before coming back on Friday to hand down the judgment. Sheesh. Try to live a little, guys.
I've been called to jury duty only once (so far), didn't get as far as the voir dire process, not even called into the courtroom for interviews, but was forced to sit in the waiting room for hours, and the SOBs had "Pawn Stars" on the tvs, and the same four episodes repeated every two hours, over and over and over and over and the same goddamn idiocy of that show it drove me MAD I tell you, MAD, and I will never watch Pawn Stars again, so that's my jury duty experience and if I'm ever called to jury duty again I will insist they fcking run a Mandalorian bingewatch instead, SWEAR TO GOD.
When I was practicing law, I once asked the county court clerk why I was never called. She said that at one side of a case would use a preemptory challenge to strike a lawyer in the pool, so it wasn't worth screwing up my day for it.
(I did note that other lawyers from time to time were called, they were always struck, so she was clearly doing me a favor.)
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