Friday, April 11, 2008

Jury Duty

It's a simple story, really. It involves two main characters.

2:00 am. It was dark that night. Bad neighborhood on the north end of town. A man walks out of his trailer, passes through his fence, turns left onto the street and begins walking toward another man. After a few strides down the street, the man leaving his trailer raise a gun in the direction of the second man. Angry words are exchanged. A shot is fired towards the ground. Then, a second shot echoes into the early morning darkness. The second man, his body turned after the first shot, is struck in the armpit. The bullet travels through the top of his heart and through part of his lungs before finally coming to rest in the right side of his chest cavity.

The first man turns and returns to his trailer. He leaves the .22 caliber revolver used in the attack under a lawnmower in his yard. The dead body of the second man is found with his face pressed against the grill of a white station wagon parked around the corner of the intersection of Sunny Dr. and Longview. It is unknown whether or not he made it to the car himself or whether he had help.

After two weeks of testimony, I spent three or four hours on Monday morning with eleven strangers before deciding on a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. Sentencing will take place toward the end of May.

" We all have a chance to murder
We all feel the need for wonder"
- "Oh My God," Jars of Clay, Good Monsters

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