Jury Duty

So as of today I finished my civil duty as a US citizen, by sending a 21 year old 3 time offender to prison for 30 years!

This has been the hardest thing I have ever done...hands down!

After 3 days of trial we came to the conclusion that the accused was in fact guilty of all 4 felony charges being brought against him, including assault and battery with a deadly weapon and breaking and entering.

In Oklahoma, by law, seeing that this was his third strike he has a minimum of 20 years on each account!

The DA requested that we make him serve all four 30 year sentences consecutively, which would have meant he would be locked up for 120 years.

We how ever sentenced him to serve them out at the same time meaning a total of 30 years served. Due to his 2 previous convictions he is required to serve at least 85% of his sentence before being allowed parol.

After we came to an agreement of his guilt I wanted to jump across the jury bench and grab him and scream "YOU FREAKIN MORON! YOU HAVE THROWN YOUR LIFE AWAY!" 

He is so young, He will be 50 when he gets out.

So sad!

His crimes are horrible, he smashed in someone's front door at 230 am and stabbed a man 13 times in an attempt to rob them, the police arrived to find him still wrestling with the victim.

There were a lot of holes in the case and I wont give a record of them all here, it would be too long, but based on the evidence we found him guilty!

He is a product of his environment, raised in poor family, street life , gang involvement, etc. etc. 

You know the story.

He is also me about 10 years ago, I never stabbed anyone, but I have done some horrible stuff, I just never got caught, I have pity on him, I know what its like to be sucked into a life you have little or no control of, but no conceivable way out.

It sucks, he was doomed to failure from an early age.

I just literally pray that his time in prison will help him change his life, and when he gets out at 50 he can become a functional part of our society.

-FOOD FOR YOUR SOUL FROM MINE