Sunday, December 21, 2014

Day 10: "A Juror's Perspective". Written by: Paul A. Sanders, Jr. The 13th Juror MD @The13thJurorMD (Twitter)

The Jodi Arias Retrial (Sentencing Phase) - Day 10: "A Juror's Perspective".
I had a kaleidoscope of emotions and observations throughout the day. Dr. Fonseca, a Psychologist specializing in sexual proclivity, was on the stand for the second day in a row. I mentioned that in day 9, listening to testimony of this kind is difficult for a Jury because of its subjective nature. It is also tedious and slow. 
I spend time watching the Jury. The empty seats where the dismissed Jurors sat are still vacant. I still believe that most do not take a lot of notes. One rarely sees emotion on their faces, which is to be expected. I search their faces for emotions to determine what may or may not have impact on them. It is similar to the way a Juror will scrutinize a Defendant sitting at the defense table. I spent four months looking for answers on the face of Marissa DeVault and why she, with premeditation and in a cruel and heinous nature, killed her husband, Dale Harrell (Note: Scorned airs tonight on ID Discovery Channel at 8 PM: a dramatization of this Hammer Killing story).
I, with eleven other Jurors, never got an answer by looking at the defendant. Even her drawing pictures during testimony, was not allowed to impact us in the deliberation room. It is the same with looking at Juror's faces. Their faces do not yield answers....
But, I saw a collective emotion today. The Jury had listened to another two hours of the testimony of Dr. Fonseca and those opinions one could call subjective. Kirk Nurmi left her on the stand while he readied a visual aid of the prior testimony of Daniel Freeman.
Normally, court proceedings will not go longer than an hour and a half due to OSHA regulations regarding the Court Reporter, the person who tediously documents testimony. The Court Reporter must be given a break every 90 minutes as explained by Judge Steinle III in the DeVault proceedings In most instances, the Judge will recess the Jury and Court for at least ten minutes and the lunch recess will be an hour to an hour and a half.
Today, though, Judge Stevens did not excuse the Jury for a break but instead told them that they could stand in place and stretch for five minutes. I was taken aback. The Jury was still on stage and was forced to stretch in front of the court. It is a nuance more than irritant and it was not protocol for normal proceedings. After the stretch, the Jury sat down while Kirk Nurmi put in a CD at the defense table for the court and Jury to see and hear.
The court was silent as he fiddled and dinked around with the equipment. Randy, the Bailiff, hurried over to assist when the CD showed a visual but lacked sound. The silence in the courtroom changed ever so perceptibly to an uncomfortable silence. He turned the machine on and off and still there was no sound. Personally, I was embarrassed for the man. It would seem like they might have thought to test the exhibit before presenting it in open court.
I looked over at the Jury. There were not merely looking at Kirk Nurmi, they were staring and glaring him down. I saw arms crossed on chests. I saw their stationary eyes fixed on the defense and the computer mis-machinations. The time wore on as the unmoving glares of the Jury stayed fixed on the inept defense team.
I know this feeling. There was a point in the Marissa DeVault Hammer Killing Trial where the prosecution played a CD that had only sound but not visual. The CD featured multiple recordings of DeVault calling home from the Buckeye Jail manipulating her semi-co-conspirator (if there is such a thing). The recordings were awful and almost unintelligible. We had to listen to hours of these tape fragments.
We were understandably upset as a collective unit. We were upset for two reasons. The first was that we would have thought that the Prosecution should have known that this was a poor medium for us to hear the evidence and that it should have been tested before it's presentation. It felt like we wasted hours listening to unintelligible mumbo jumbo. It made the Prosecution look amateur.
The second reason we were upset was simply because the evidence was overkill and unnecessary. We had enough evidence and this seemed like "filler". Eventually, we did spend hours in the deliberation room going through the CD and we were able to hear it with clarity. Not unexpected, the CD recordings had no effect on our eventual decisions.
When I saw the faces of the Jurors in the Arias proceeding, I felt they felt the same way. They were tired of Dr. Fonseca and she was to remain on the stand during the Freeman's prior testimony. When the defense couldn't get the equipment to work properly, the Jury's faces told me they had enough. Emotion and face reading is an intangible thing but their faces spoke volumes.
The Judge was smart enough to dismiss for lunch recess. It was a bad moment for the defense. It is nothing that can be carried into the deliberation room but the general countenance of the Jury is starting to tell me that they are not buying the defense argument just as I felt the Prosecution in our case was overkill.
Oftentimes, I sit next to Kathy Brown in The Gallery or public seating. Kathy is well versed in court ethics, is the number one supporter for the Travis family, has been to the previous trial and knows everyone. She gives me tidbits of information that I usually lock in the back of my head or make a note about. During a recess, sho pointed out a Jodi Arias Supporter. She noted to me that she was wearing an armband that read "Free Jodi".
I still cannot get my head wrapped around this concept. The killer is a convicted of premeditated murder. The killing was cruel and heinous. We are on the path to either life or death for the defendant.
It is my feeling, with her not being of the family of the defendant, that this support is akin to supporting first degree murder. It is as if to say, it is okay to premeditate killing someone and we should have empathy for her. We should support murder.
Since I am not a Juror and can have an opinion from The Gallery, I have no empathy for Jodi Arias especially given the convictions on the prior two phases from a prior Jury. 
I only have empathy for the victim, Travis Alexander, and I only have empathy for his friends and family.
The Death Penalty was created for people like Jodi Arias..
Justice for Travis.
Justice for Dale.
Paul A. Sanders, Jr.
The 13th Juror MD @The13thJurorMD (Twitter)

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