If you’ve ever served on a jury in a criminal trial, you know how grueling the experience can be.
Listening to dozens of witnesses with some testimony that can be gut wrenching and difficult to listen to.
And then in the deliberation room, knowing you are deciding the future of the accused, it can be an emotionally draining experience.
Imagine being a juror in a major multiple murder trial that has gone for six months.
That’s what the jurors in the trial of Charles Merritt have been going through, now deciding the fate of the man accused of bludgeoning to death a business associate, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer and their two toddler age sons in 2010.
It was one of the most baffling cases with the family suddenly disappearing from their Fallbrook home, missing for three years, before their bodies were discovered in shallow desert graves in San Bernardino County.
With the judge this week kicking a member of the defense team out the courtroom for possible jury tampering after talking to the two alternate jurors, as reported by San Bernardino Sun reporter Richard DeAtley who has been covering the case, this trial, has gained even more attention.
And that means that whatever those jurors decide, and no matter how long it takes to reach a decision after such a very long trial, they will be glad it’s over…but will know that have served their duty in the criminal justice system that is preserved by citizens like them.
(Photo credit 10News)