the DA didn’t make the case for the crime and i went into the deliberation room knowing that. i also knew a half-dozen white orange county folks might not see it that way. the defendant was latino, there was a gang charge in addition to robbery.
sure enough, as we went around the table to give our first impressions, the white ladies used language around “gut instinct” and “he shouldn’t be hanging out with bad people” and the like. others were undecided because there was so much unreliable testimony.
they got to me and i flatly said “i have reasonable doubts.” i stated some of my reasoning and heads started to nod. the next 3 jurors to talk after me were hispanic. they stated that they understood why this might be confusing, and then gave some personal perspectives about growing up in disadvantage neighborhoods, how not everyone is a gangster just because they live there. one white lady said “well, you know, they should really move if that’s the case.”
the discussion opened up and it went right to gangs, right to how the defendant shouldn’t be hanging out with gang members. everyone had an opinion about how the defendant looked, or talked, or that he was drinking a 40 just before the robbery, or that he was related to a gang member. they went right to that.
but that’s not what we were supposed to decide on. we were there for a robbery as the primary charge. a robbery that i very clearly felt the state had not be able to pin on this guy.
so… being the loud mouth that i sometimes am… i interrupted and said “let’s all turn to page 14 in the jury instructions and go through what would make the charge ‘guilty’, line by line, and see where we all stand.”
sure enough, when we focused on the actual charge, and the facts actually required for someone to be found guilty, most in the room agreed it wasn’t there. well, except for two white ladies.
so i, also a white lady, helped to walk them through the list. when “gut instinct” or “it’s a bad neighborhood” came up, i kindly pointed out that those are not facts of the case. when i requested that they use the facts of the case to provide reasoning for their position, they both quietly agreed there weren’t any.
and that’s how, in about an hour, we came to a unanimous decision of ‘not guilty’.
i don’t have experience with the court system. and i don’t watch court room based tv dramas. so i was really a blank slate to all this.
i was taken aback at the very clear inherent bias that some jurors displayed, and all the while realizing they didn’t think of themselves as bias. but i was also taken aback by how focusing on the process, the rules, and the facts quickly squashed that line of reasoning.
this has buoyed me a bit, in light of the actions of the aclu over the muslim ban. but it also feels so fragile. so very fragile.
And this is exactly why I have never tried to get out of jury duty. We need clear thinking, intelligent people on juries. I get so frustrated with people I know who are always looking for a way out of serving.
somebody offer this hero a cape
Fellow whites. THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING.
Which means -get yourselfs on juries-. Don’t skip jury duty. Don’t skip don’t skip don’t try to sneak out of it, get on that jury, and make sure you are keeping all the other white people in line.
After his release from prison, Wright obtained his undergraduate degree in 2002, entering law school in 2004 and graduating from St. Thomas University School of Law in 2007. Passing the New Jersey Bar in 2008, he spent the next nine years being investigated by the New Jersey Bar’s Committee on Character before being granted admission to the bar by the New Jersey Supreme Court on September 27, 2017.
On September 27, 2017, Wright became the only person in U.S. history to be condemned to life in prison, secure his own release and exoneration and then be granted a license to practice law by the very court that condemned him.
Wright got his 1991 conviction overturned by exposing the gross corruption and misconduct within the court that convicted him, the prosecutors office and the police force. This allowed Wright to successfully get rid of his life sentence but he remained in prison on numerous other convictions with sentences totaling over 70 years. Wright’s ultimate release came as a result of his cross-examination of veteran police detective, James Dugan. Dugan’s confession opened revelations of wide and systematic misconduct and cover-up in Wright’s case. Then Somerset County Prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell, Jr., who tried Wright’s case personally was fingered as being the orchestrator of that misconduct, directing police officers to falsify their police reports while he personally dictated the false testimony of witnesses against Wright and made secret deals with defense attorneys to have their clients lie to the jury that Wright was their drug boss and that they had plead guilty and were going to prison, when in-fact, they were never going to spend a day in jail.
Dugan pled guilty to official misconduct in order to escape prison. Wright’s trial judge, Michael Imbriani, was removed from the bench and sent to prison on theft charges and Bissell, after learning of Dugan’s confession on TV news, took flight with federal authorities in pursuit. As police were kicking in the door of his Las Vegas hotel room, Bissell put a revolver to his head and pulled the trigger, committing suicide. Wright’s remaining convictions were vacated and he was immediately released from prison. The charges were dropped and the case against him dismissed.
Wright now works at the Law Firm Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley located in Newark, New Jersey, and is to have said “I went to law school for one reason and one reason only, To slay giants for a price. And if the giant is big enough and the cause is important enough, I’ll do it for free, especially when it involves helping those who cannot help themselves.”
ultimate power move: law your way out of jail and convict the people who wrongly convicted you
Steel Phoenix Studios 