I was a juror in Roger Stone's trial. I am proud of how we came to our decision.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Seth Cousins was juror Number 3 in the Roger Stone trial.

During the first half of November, I made a brief journey with 14 fellow Americans, all of them strangers to me. Together we were the 12 jurors (and two alternates) sitting in judgment of longtime political consultant Roger Stone. We sat through five days of testimony and half a day of closing arguments. After eight hours of deliberation, we returned guilty verdicts on each of the seven counts we were charged to consider.

Since we delivered that verdict, I have been taken aback by the accounts of pundits and politicians that our decision was somehow the product of a deeply polarized, partisan divide. Let me be clear: We did not convict Stone based on his political beliefs or his expression of those beliefs. We did not convict him of being intemperate or acting boorishly. We convicted him of obstructing a congressional investigation, of lying in five specific ways during his sworn congressional testimony and of tampering with a witness in that investigation.

Our jury was diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, education and occupation. I’m a 51-year-old white man from New England. My favorite person on the jury was an African American woman from Tennessee. Given that the trial took place in the District, the likelihood of having government employees in the jury pool was high and, indeed, we had such individuals. Like jurors everywhere, none of us asked for this responsibility but each of us accepted it willingly. We served the proposition that everyone is entitled to a fair trial and that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Interest in this case was high, and the court took special steps to prevent us from being harassed or improperly influenced. Each morning, we assembled at a building several blocks away and made our way to the parking garage, where federal marshals would load us into vans with tinted windows for the trip to court. On arrival, we moved through the building via a freight elevator and back corridors.

-more-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-was-a-juror-in-roger-stones-trial-we-took-his-rights-seriously/2019/11/22/234d7df0-0d46-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html?utm_campaign=opinions_saturday&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1

[empedocles]

1. Liked the juror protective cautions

[Scarsdale]

2. I could never serve

on any jury prosecuting these traitors in the repub. party. Stone looks just like what he is - a self described "dirty trickster". Stephen Miller is a slimeball, and looks just like that. They all have one thing in common - lack of human decency. Thanks to all the jurors who made this decision.

[dewsgirl]

4. Yep, I likely wouldn't make it through voir dire.

[empedocles]

5. I made it through, despite being a lawyer. Interesting experience. Hard to decide

for me to decide whether the jury or the judge was worse. Good to know.

[Indykatie]

3. We're Lucky That Most Government Crimes Are Prosecuted in DC, NY and VA

It ensures that trials have the benefit of diverse juries. I'd worry about jury nullification for Trump related crimes if the jury were composed of all White folks in Red areas of the country.