The past two days...

Here is an update to let you all know where I have been for the past 48+ hours.

On Wednesday I had to report to the Somerville District Courthouse for jury duty; this being the second time I was summoned. I was actually selected to be on the juror's panel this time, comprised of the 8 people out of the potential 21 in the pool. I was by far the youngest of the jurors. The others were all white (except one Indian man who worked in biotech industry), only 2 woman, and all very rational, professional people (included a physical therapist, an entrepreneur, an artist, etc.).

While I am on the topic, I wanted to just note how surreal the experience is in that respect. Here you are spending hours and hours with a group of people whom you know nothing about to begin with, spending time during breaks making small talk and getting to know one-another better, enduring an emotionally and mentally stressful trial, coming up with a verdict and then leaving and going separate ways without the expectation of ever meeting again, and, in our case, 5 minutes after we just learned each other's names. How odd and fascinating ?!

So now that the case is over and the verdict has been made public, I can tell you about it. It was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Ryan Robinson and his mother. So the story goes, UPS intercepted a large box, and after dogs found it to be suspicious they handed it over to the Medford Police to investigate. When they opened it up they found over 40 lbs of marijuana wrapped in duck-tape, in a plastic, wrapped in padding, with wood lining, in a box, in a box, addressed to a false name to the residents of 17-1 Forest Street, Medford, MA. A Medford detective then dressed as a UPS delivery man brought the package to said address, handed it off to the residents and busted them. In addition to the box, they also found ammunition, crack cocaine, and various pills without prescription. To top it all off, the building was also located next to a very small Christian School.

Without getting into the details, we heard about 7-8 witnesses and had about 12+ exhibits as evidence. Although the mother and son (and when I say son, I am talking about a man in his late 30s early 40s and a mother who was 58: her grandson, 13, was made to testify) were having their hearings simultaneously, they did have their own attorneys. So in addition to the the prosecutor, in this case, the district attorney, we also had to hear from not one, but two, defense lawyers. All this dragged the case out for 2 full days.

To conclude, Ryan Robinson was found guilty on all accounts [possession and intent to distribute a class D drug in a school zone], and his mother was also found guilty on all accounts minus the allegation to be in possession of a ammunition, as there were other residents and it could not be tied to her. Both were sentence to 3 years in prison.

All this has left me with, what I am telling everyone, a new found respect for the justice system. No one will ever know what I am talking about until they have had the honor and responsibility of serving on a jury, which I hope you all do.

To top it all off, I got to see Legally Blond, the Musical, in Boston on Wednesday night for free (Thanks to Rachel). It SO much better than I had expected and it was actually a very entertaining and well-executed production which I highly recommend.

I made the joke that I spent all day and night on Wednesday in court, but no one got it without me expaining it.