[speaker001:] we've my husband's retired and we vacationed a lot and I think I've had a lot in the meantime I'm not sure I would have picked that one either shall we have a go at it
[speaker002:] uh-huh sure okay trial by jury
[speaker001:] um I think one of the facets of living in a small town is that often times you are uh sitting in on a jury trial where you might be acquainted with at least maybe not that person but part of their family
[speaker002:] uh-huh so that might lead you to a biased uh decision perhaps if you were uh-huh
[speaker001:] I would think so
[speaker002:] on the other hand um I don't know if course the judge as all the expertise in that field and he's trained for that and and I'm sure there are certain rules that are set down that he goes by uh along the way to make a decision but perhaps the jury can um give their uh input as to what they think need to be done and then maybe he can go from there uh have you ever sat on a jury trial
[speaker001:] yes I have
[speaker002:] yeah I have too and I found it real interesting but
[speaker001:] I did to yes
[speaker002:] but we weren't given any opportunity to make a decision as to what would happen we just said whether or not we thought the party was guilty
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] and he took it from there
[speaker001:] uh the last trial I sat on at the end of the session the prosecuting attorney called us into a private room and more or less instructed us to find her not guilty because even though they knew and they proved that she had set fire to her car in order to collect the insurance money that would we find her guilty she would simply flee the state and avoid any prosecution of any kind whatsoever which we did find her guilty against his instruction and she did flee the state
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but but she was guilty and we just didn't understand why he was doing that
[speaker002:] uh-huh that would merely make for some odd behavior on the on their part
[speaker001:] my husband sat in on a jury trial a murder trial that lasted for two weeks
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] that left him uh I mean in the very beginning he was convinced that the person was not guilty and at the end of their deliberations he finally voted uh guilty uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] which surprised me that that uh through the jury discussion they were able to convince him against his original opinion so maybe that speaks well for juries
[speaker002:] yeah I I remember the one that I sat in on we had quite a problem coming to a conclusion and and we came back with so many people this way and so many that way and the judge told us we couldn't leave until we came to a decision and we just could not we were split and he kept us there one evening until seven uh and everyone wanted to go home and so they were willing some of them were willing to change their uh decision just to get out of uh out of the jury room
[speaker001:] that doesn't seem fair does it
[speaker002:] no and I I couldn't believe they would do that so maybe in a way it should be left up to the judge because uh maybe the jury isn't uh going to give them an honest decision
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know I I don't know I guess if if we had more power we're just people off the street so to speak and
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] we don't have the the uh background to maybe make that decision
[speaker001:] the only thing that frightens me about that is the Graylord cases in uh Chicago where so many judges were guilty of so much misjustice from the bench
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] that after all they're only people too in that they're subject to corruption just like any other human being and they do have a lot of power
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh it seems uh sometimes it seems uh rather I guess rather uh odd that one person would have that deciding factor he would be the sole factor uh determining a person's outcome I guess though but the jury still has their input and maybe he goes uh has a lot to decide has to decide a lot from what the jury has input to the case too
[speaker001:] maybe we both agree then that we need to keep juries and
[speaker002:] I think so
[speaker001:] I think so
[speaker002:] we could go on
[speaker001:] I think we've reached a decision nice visiting with you bye
[speaker002:] I think we have thank you bye-bye