I'm not eating right, sleeping right, or acting right this week. I must be in another jury trial. In fact, I am defending my client in state district court against the the government's allegation he knowingly possessed a firearm after having been convicted of a felony.
Jury selection was yesterday and was very challenging. The difficulty was finding a group of jurors who could give my client a fair trial already knowing he was a convicted felon. (I called them my Twelve Special Jurors) It only took one courageous member of the panel admitting their bias before a rash of folks said they would use the prior felony as an inference of guilt if they were not sure the state met their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We were successful in striking each one for cause.
The jury is composed of 10 women and 2 men. My Twelve Special Jurors. We begin the evidence this morning when I expect the state to call around three witnesses to prove their case-in-chief. When I'm feeling more like a normal human being again, I'll let you know how things turned out.
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