Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Repeated Sexual Assault of Same Child (At Least 3 Violations of 1st Degree Sexual Assault)

Not an easy trial to sit through. A man known as "Uncle" to a now 12 year-old girl was on trial.  Twelve jurors would need to come to a unanimous decision - Guilty or Not Guilty. Defendant is presumed innocent. The State taxed with convincing us without any physical evidence - just the testimony of a few people.

The first half of the trial was heart breaking and tragic. The victim, now 12 years old and cognitively challenged testified; as well as her 11 year-old sister who claimed to witness incidents. These girls were expected to recall incidents going back from January, 2013 through July, 2014.  Their stories were not consistent. Sometimes an incident would happen in a bedroom; another time it happened in a kitchen or basement. They were visibly terrified to be on the witness stand talking into a microphone about "chest" and "private parts" while "uncle" sat watching them.

Their life consists of living in a household with up to ten children and four adults - including "uncle".  Turns out "uncle" was not really an "uncle".  None of the adults claimed to be married - just boyfriend or fiancee. And I'm convinced a fiancee is nothing more than a glorified girlfriend. 

The second half of the trial was less emotional.  A male nurse practitioner and two male police officers and the defendant testified. 

I kept an open mind; giving the defendant the benefit of the doubt until he testified. Twice he was caught lying while on the witness stand. By the time he was finished I had reached my decision beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty.

The jury however was not unanimous to start. Yesterday we spent about 40 minutes discussing before being excused for the day. After sleeping on it however this morning in about 1 hour we came to the unanimous decision of Guilty.

This was my first time serving on a jury. I did not enjoy it; do not look forward to doing it again any time soon; but did find the experience satisfying. Perhaps because the deliberation process went much smoother than I expected.  We selected the youngest person to act as our "foreperson".  Turns out he is a senior at Whitefish Bay High School; planning to study Criminal Justice in college. He has been accepted by U.W. Madison. For such a young person he handled himself quite well given the delicate subject matter.  I like to think he'll end up as a judge someday.