Chapter 13 – Jury Chaos
“Are we allowed to bring in handwritten notes? When you started reading your letter yesterday, I was concerned that you were bringing in information that was not fact based and was your opinion.” Juror #5 When we settled into the deliberation room on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, Juror #5 was clearly agitated. Once we were all seated, she immediately took the floor to raise concerns about me and how our deliberations had been going so far. She argued that since there were strict rules about not being able to bring our notes out of the courtroom during the trial, and not taking anything out of the deliberation room, we also shouldn’t be allowed to bring in notes we had made at home. My stomach sank—had I done something wrong? Other jurors quickly came to my defense, pointing out that we were allowed to form and express our own opinions. Juror #5 acknowledged that but questioned how we could be sure my notes weren’t influenced by outside information. The foreperson stepped in a...