Timelies all!

Lunch today was my usual sandwich, Coke Zero and an apple. I just ordered Chinese for dinner, so that should be more exciting.

Stuck at work, waiting for other people to do stuff. It could be a while...

I can see a long term inside for this guy, but not life.

We went into the jury room. The first thing we agreed on, I think, was that no one had any plans to consider probation. Several people, most of the jury probably, wouldn't have minded giving him life, but there were a few people, me included, who weren't comfortable with that. We only spent maybe half an hour debating, but it was clear pretty quickly who the hard-liners were.

Personally, and I think this guy was stupid, nasty, without conscience, selfish, brutish, and a generally horrible person, I was not comfortable judging him as being completely beyond redemption. I couldn't go to that absolute. He's 23. He's also an undocumented illegal.

Convicts are eligible for parole after they've served half their sentence, or 30 years, whichever is less, so anything over 60 but less than life was sort of a wash. However, we ended up at 70, with the additional ten serving as a commentary of how awful we thought this guy was.

After we delivered the sentence, the judge came to talk to us to answer questions. The lawyers also came in after that. People had questions both about the case and just general questions about being a lawyer or a judge. The prosecutor asked us why 70 and not life. The morning of the trial, they'd offered him a plea bargain of 50 years, and he turned it down. He said he wasn't guilty. When the judge was delivering the sentence to him, he said he wasn't guilty.

Jesus, Dana, that whole thing sounds so awful.

When the judge was delivering the sentence to him, he said he wasn't guilty.

I guess there's just something in the mind set or the self-image that won't allow someone to admit to themselves that they are the kind of person who would do things like that.

I would have more respect--if such respect was ever deserved--for a crook or thug who stood up and said, "Yeah, I did it, I thought I'd get away with it, I'm sorry I got caught, but it looked like a good idea at the time." I get so tired of them standing up and muttering "I'm sorry", as if that means anything. But people go on and on about "He didn't apologize!"

My favorite...if that word can apply...inmate in the big house was a fellow who sidled up to me one day and said, "You know, I've never been arrested for something I didn't do."

Me: Really? What do you do?

Him: I rob banks.

Me: No kidding.

Him: Yeah. I'm working to finance the violent overthrow of the government.

Me: Howze that going?

Him: [Wry smile]

I'm not sure why it surprised me, but he was African American. I generally attribute that sort of thing to skinheads for some reason.

It was not a fun experience, though I do believe that someone has to do it, and this time, it was me. It would have been a thousand times worse if it hadn't been really obvious that he was guilty, or if we had acquitted him and found out later about these other crimes they couldn't mention during the first part of the trial. I was really grateful that we all agreed so quickly.

They took the first one to trial because they had DNA evidence plus eyewitness, and probably because the first victim made a better witness. But both of these women -- 40 and 60 -- one of them grabbed a naked blade with her hand to get it away from the guy, and the other woman bashed out a window with her hand. They had crime scene photos of that window, and there was a lot of blood.

Oh, and someone asked what the chances were the guy would reach parole. He's been in custody since he was arrested last January, and they said he's not doing well in prisons. He's involved in fights, and he's the agressor. Even if he lives another thirty years, it seems unlikely he'll be paroled.

Me: Really? What do you do?

Him: I rob banks.

Me: No kidding.

Him: Yeah. I'm working to finance the violent overthrow of the government.

Me: Howze that going?

I like the present tense of the "I rob banks". And "Howze that going?" seems the only reasonable answer to any statement of planning the violent overthrow of the government.