Detra Farries Should Fry

Ya, I haven’t posted in over a year, and this isn’t going to be an upbeat one, either.

So, a few weeks ago I was called in for jury duty. It’s only happened to me twice before in Colorado. The first time I called the night before and didn’t have to show up. The second time I went in, but I was released around 1pm (the perp made a plea bargain). This time, though, things were very different. In fact, I got further along than I have ever had in the past. It was a pretty harrowing experience. It’s been a couple of weeks, but I just read the following post from the Gazette, and just had to say something.

http://www.gazette.com/opinion/farries-133577-blvd-parked.html

I arrived for jury duty on a Monday morning. I waited around for a couple of hours. There were a lot of people there that day. I was in the last group to be called. I was to go up to the front, grab a questionnaire, and fill it out. That’s when I found out what it was for. At first I thought that Detra was already tried. Regardless of whether or not I thought she was found guilty, I responded to the 2nd question of the questionnaire (which was something to the affect of “do you think she did it?”) with one word: Guilty. I also underlined it three times.

After a long lunch break, I reported back to the courthouse. That’s when I found out that this was the trial for Detra dragging Allen Rose to death. I just about crapped my pants. The judge, Detra with her defense attorneys, and the prosecutors, where all there. Then the judge read the charges. Detra plead guilty to every single one of them. WTF? How could she plead not guilty? I can only assume that her defense attorneys made her do that. I mean, the facts are clear. She dragged some guy to death who just trying to do his job. Anyway, I had to go back in two days for “individual voir dire”.

I reported again to the courthouse on Wednesday at 4:30pm. I was already beginning to regret my answers to the questionnaire. Then the time came. I entered the courtroom and saw: Detra with her attorneys and family members, the judge, and the prosecutors. The defense attorney spent some time questioning me about my second answer. Obviously, I’m not an ideal candidate for his jury. I had to look Detra in the eyes and tell her I thought she was guilty, in front of her family. Man that was hard. After a couple more questions, the judge excused me from jury duty. For the next couple of days, I felt really bad about that. I thought that I shouldn’t have been so harsh, I should have been open minded, innocent until proven guilty… all that stuff. Bullshit! I feel fine now, and I feel even more convicted (no pun intended) in my judgement. As more of the evidence comes out in the media, I’m happier that I’m not on that jury. I’m absolutely certain that she’s guilty. I can’t say exactly what she’s guilty of. That’s for the lawyers and jury to decide. In my opinion, that’s just semantics. Call it homicide, manslaughter, negligent homicide, I really don’t care. She’s guilty, and she should do the time.

Frankly, I’m surprised that they could select 14 jurors out of the 100 initial people. Honestly, I really do hope that she gets a fair trial. The right to a trial by a jury of your peers is a constitutional right. I hope even more that she’s found guilty on all charges, and she spends a considerable amount of time in prison.