Jury Duty

VERDICT BASED ON EVIDENCE, NOT EMOTION

I was on the jury that found Miami-Dade Police Officer Nicholas Cefolo not
guilty of armed cocaine trafficking, attempted cocaine trafficking and
conspiracy to traffic in cocaine (Cop found not guilty in drug- stealing
case, Nov. 5).

Ed Griffith, spokesman for the state attorney's office, said that the
verdict was not based on evidence, but on sympathy for the defendant.

That is an insulting assumption.

Our criminal-justice system asks ordinary citizens to give up their
personal lives to sit in judgment of another person's actions. We are asked
to swear an oath, to listen to testimony and examine evidence presented in
court. We then must abide by the judge's jury instructions, which tell us
to reach a verdict of guilt or innocence.

The defendant is innocent until proven guilty. The state had to prove the
charges beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence presented us in this case
did not meet that criterion.

The defendant surely appeared guilty of some kind of illegal activity.
Unfortunately the state failed to prove what it was. We were presented
direct evidence of other people's involvement in a crime involving drugs.
We were asked to assume the defendant's involvement by association. We were
then instructed not to assume anything not in evidence.

The prosecution was not helped by police-department investigators who
couldn't provide evidence as to the defendant's direct involvement in a
conspiracy that they had on tape.

It didn't help that the investigators rushed to arrest the defendant before
any intent regarding the seized cocaine reasonably could be inferred. The
defendant did have an opportunity to divest himself of the cocaine before
he was arrested, yet he didn't. Reasonable doubt?

It baffles me as to why anyone who works within the criminal-justice system
would retry a case in the court of public opinion after a verdict has been
reached. It's reprehensible that the state attorney's office would alienate
the people for whom it works by questioning a jury's decision in the media.

Don't ever ask me to sit on a jury again. To be excoriated for giving my
time and energy to a system that treats me like this is incomprehensible.
The state failed to prove its case, and it's the jury's fault?

Alan Calkins

Miami