The DU Lounge

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.