in the early ''90's. Three of us turned a jury on first vote of 9 guilty to a verdict of not guilty. The defendant was a black man and the trial was small town Missouri with an all white jury.

It wasn't convenient for me. I had a baby at home. My husband worked full time. I had to arrange baby sitters. But I've always been glad I was on that jury and that we acquitted the defendant as not guilty by reason of self defense. I've often wondered whether he realized how lucky he was.

That's amazing you got everyone to turn/agree.

After they selected the pool, the judge said the rest of you can google, talk about the case, do what you want when you get home. Everyone else was reminded not to do that. It's going to be really tough for the defense team! However, by the way the defense attorneys asked follow up questions, I think they are pretty sharp and will probably go for some sort of technicality. There is video of the murder with the defendants' faces clear. IS it normal for the defendants and their families to be sitting in the waiting room with all of the potential jurors? In the courtroom, I get, but out in the waiting area?

He admitted to grabbing a kitchen knife in the home of the (white) guy he knifed to defend himself. And he did slice the guy up enough he had to go to the hospital. The white guy admitted to starting the fight, swinging a bar stool at the defendant. So we had some agreed upon facts to use to change the minds of the nine jurors that were willing to convict without considering the circumstances. It's been a long time ago, but it didn't take us long to get to 12 votes to acquit. Less than two hours.

I've been called for civilian jury duty a number of times and only once did I get to the voir dire stage. It was a drug trial. When the defense lawyer asked me what my occupation was I told him I worked in medical materiel in the AF and then described what it was about. During my career, I ordered, received, and issued controlled substances (narcotics). I was immediately rejected by the defense lawyer.

While in the AF, I was a Senior Master Sergeant on a Court Martial panel (jury). The trial was about a Technical Sergeant who twice tested positive for amphetamines in a four month period. We received instructions from the judge and we had to answer guilty on the four questions he gave us. On the jury, there were seven officers, myself, and a Master Sergeant. We began our deliberations and spent about an hour discussing the testimony and held our first vote. The result was 8-1 guilty and I was the one who voted not guilty. The verdict had to be unanimous. We continued our deliberations with me arguing that according to the judges instructions there was no proof the defendant knowing took the drugs. After another vote, it was 6 - 3 for guilty. Twice, we went back to the judge to answer questions about his instructions. After the second time, a Captain on our jury, who was the most vocal arguing for guilty, said after listening to the judge that he had to agree with me the prosecution didn't prove their case. More deliberations and we finally voted 9-0 not guilty.

Just before everything went into stasis due to COVID.
Felony domestic violence case. Guy accused of abusing his daughter in a public place. No witnesses aside from the defendant & the "victim".
I got selected as Foreman. We discussed the testimony for under 10 minutes. I was hearing a lot of the same points, so I called for the first vote.
12 not guilty. Yep, our entire deliberation was 8 or 9 minutes.
The prosecution not only didn't prove the guy did anything wrong, they didn't even prove a crime had occurred.
I was surprised it warranted an indictment.
Afterwards, we find out that the defendant had been granted an order of protection from the ex-wife. SHE was the violent one.
The daughter was VERY unconvincing on the stand. And, quite uncomfortable. I can't be sure she didn't fall because she tripped & dad was there to help her up.
The prosecutors got a jury involved in a family feud resulting from a messy divorce.
What a waste of time.