Juror #11 has been asleep each and every day. He seems totally disinterested in this case. The only thing that really seems to excite him is the lunch. I'm serious. He was wide awake on Monday as the jurors were leaving for the day. This was a juror that the Judge himself had reservations about after the first day of opening arguments. I hope that even a sleeping juror can see that this demon is guilty, but if he's the reason there's not unanimity on a guilty verdict then I can't tell you what a travesty of justice that would be. During a readback of some testimony yesterday, he seemed to be communicating with two other jurors about what was bring read back. I couldn't tell if there was some sort of dispute between he and the two other jurors or if the three of them were on the same side.
I've had some experience watching juries in criminal cases and I'm sad to say that this isn't the first perpetually drowsy juror that I've observed. For the sake of the accused and the departed, I don't think it's too much to ask that jurors take their oath seriously enough to stay awake.
The alternate jurors were dismissed yesterday and told they didn't need to return for deliberations today. That would seem to indicate we're stuck with "Snoozy", as several courtroom observers have nicknamed him. I just pray that when he sleeps he's as haunted by nightmares of this absinthe guzzling, knife wielding devil as I am.
The lone good thing about this sleeping juror is that it did remind me of this humorous entry from George's blog about a sleepwalking dog that he posted just a couple of weeks before he died.
Why are sleeping jurors allowed to sit on a jury? That's probably what is holding up the jury - they have to re-explain everything that happened while Snoozy was dozing.
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