Instructions and beginning deliberations

On Monday of the third week, the judge told us we would begin deliberate on Tuesday. Closing arguments that day included one more run-through of the time line the ADA had so carefully constructed, and a PowerPoint presentation by the defense attorney, delivered in the same half-bored manner as much of his questioning.

In his instructions, the judge reminded us to render a verdict without regard to possible penalties. He reminded us that we did not have to find guilt or innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt, only beyond a reasonable doubt. He again told us not to read or watch or listen to news reports on the case, and not to discuss the case with anyone.

We left the courtroom one more time, said good-bye to the alternates we'd spent each day with, and went up to the fourth-floor jury room. It had the disused look of a temporary storage room. Most cases in our county don't go to a jury trial -- they are settled out of court by various means -- and now the room showed that. A jumble of audio and video equipment filled one corner, backed by stacks of extra chairs and a few bookshelves. We sat down at the long conference table and began to talk for the first time in two and a half weeks about all we'd seen and heard. There was very little structure that first afternoon -- we were too full of images and impressions we had not been able to share with anyone. We did elect a foreperson, a pleasant, low-key middle-aged man who favored Hawaiian shirts, who turned out to have just the right combination of tact and organization to keep us on track and make sure everyone had their questions addressed. The youngest member of the jury had volunteered to be foreperson, but another member pointed out that the discussions we would be having called for "a bit of maturity."