Good luck with the apartment, vw.

{{{erika}}} Sorry that you had a tough morning.

Erin, so glad you are taking care of yourself.

Well, I'm heading out to grab some lunch. I fully expect to miss the thread turnover, so I call post #9.

Well, as long as you're not driving Erin you should call shotgun and be in charge of the music.

I'm not hungry for lunch, yet, because I didn't have breakfast until after I got to work. Lately, my DH has been eating up all of the good leftovers before I can get to them -- I've decided it's not fair, but I haven't settled on why.

i'll be missing the tread turnover too - now if it was a real turnover, I could call it lunch

I don't need to get dressed up to go look at apartments, right?

No you don't. Although I would suggest wearing comforatable shoes.

Comfortable shoes. Check.

Nah. Wear stuff you can twist and bend in, though, so you can look in cabinets and the like.

Maybe bring a flashlight to check cabinets and corners?

OK. This is going to be long:

We are finally, finally done. Unfortunately, we were unable to come to unanimity, so it is officially a mistrial, but either way, that means I can finally talk about it! (Also that I can finally get back to normal life, thank god! Short days and short commute were all well and good for a day or two, but I feel like I've been travelling for the past two weeks, even though I've been home).

I thought this might be an interesting case, when the first day, in addition to the "do you know any of the defendants, have you been a victim of a crime, do you have relatives in law enforcement" etc regular questions, they also asked us "Are you biased against Muslims or homosexuals?". Hmmm, I think...

Apparently what I should've said is "No, not against them, for them! Can't be unbiased, better let me go!" Instead, I ended up on a jury for nearly two weeks...

The facts go a little something like this:

So. Wayyyy back in 2002, a man named Gerald was beaten and stabbed and died, in an alley in NE Washington. Police found a trail of blood leading out of the alley, and found blood in a car belonging to a guy named Harry. The blood was Gerald's, and a guy named Lamiek's. A woman who lived in a house with windows on the alley, named Fatima, identified Lamiek as being in the alley, beating Gerald. This? Was not that trial.

Lamiek and Harry were put on trial for the murder of Gerald in May 2005. On the day of jury selection, Lamiek's wife Erica ran into one of the jurors, Jovanda, in the bathroom, and realized they all (Erica, Lamiek, and the juror) knew each other from middle school. Jovanda told Erica not to worry, she'd get Lamiek off. Erica and Jovanda called each other on the phone to talk about the case, as it went on--mostly from payphones, but Erica got lazy, and it was hard for her to go to a payphone with her three kids, so she also called Jovanda from home. Big mistake. She ALSO is a moron, and talked to Lamiek (who was in prison) on recorded conversations, where although she didn't QUITE say "the juror is throwing the trial for us", it was pretty darn clear. Jury tampering is a crime. This? Is not that trial.

That jury, for the murder, was a hung jury, due to Jovanda. A new trial was scheduled for later in the summer, but the police and attorneys were as yet unaware of Jovanda's machinations, even though apparently a couple other jurors told them there was something fishy.

Meanwhile, back at the jail, Lamiek is thrilled with the hung jury, but worried abou this retrial coming up. He's bragging to people about how he got off, and isn't it so exciting. Jovanda has told him that the two main issues the jury had, and reasons they wanted to find him guilty, are the DNA evidence (that his and the victim's were found in the alley and the car) and the eyewitness, Fatima. Now, Lamiek claimed Fatima was lying. She hadn't come forward until 16 months after the murder, and there was something about how she said the police showed up right after the beating, and really they didn't show up for several hours. But she had ID'd him in a lineup.

For the DNA issue, he decided he would get his friend Javar, or possibly Javar's mom, to say that Lamiek had cut his hand earlier in the day, and been in the alley, and that's why his DNA was there (Note: nobody I talked to thinks this was actually a GOOD plan, but this was apparently Lamiek's plan). Javar and Erica come to visit Lamiek in prison. They also discuss this plan on recorded conversations from the jail. (again, note that these are not the brightest people in the world...). This? Is not that trial.

So, Lamiek is bragging all up and down the cellblock about his trial. And this guy Paul hears it. Paul is...and interesting character. He was born and raised in Jamaica. When he was 18, he moved up to the states illegally, found himself a sugar daddy, and claims to have attended Temple University under a false name (Temple says they don't have any record of him). Then he moves to DC after a few years, (continued...)