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We started with 24 jurors. We now have 20.
Of 19 original women, four have been excused. (Why all women?) There are still five men.
It鈥檚 strange to look at the three rows of seats and see empty grey chairs.
This latest juror, number 901, is a graduate student in the University of Denver鈥檚 Korbel International School. She has been very attentive and you can tell she鈥檚 taken the job very seriously despite the long days of sometimes brutal and often monotonous testimony.
When the jurors got to handle the bullet fragments which had been taken from the bodies of the people who were killed in the theater, she was the only one who wore gloves. I watched her as she turned the ziplock bags of bullet pieces over carefully and scribbled notes about them.
She was excused because her brother-in-law was shot in a hold-up at a Denver ATM. The judge decided she wasn鈥檛 up front enough about the incident and threw her out. She bravely took her lumps, though she did wipe a tear from her eye as she left the courtroom for the last time.
Juror 901 often fanned herself. I am assuming she鈥檚 the one who has secretly complained to the judge about hot flashes.
One day, a friend of mine was in the cafeteria line while 901 was waving her hand in front of her face for air.
My friend had just gotten back from Miami, and not knowing the woman next to her getting a drink was a juror, she addressed her, 鈥淵ou think you鈥檙e hot! I just got back from Miami!!!鈥�
Well, it is taboo to contact a juror in any way.
So 901 reported my friend. To the entire courtroom.
As if she had committed a crime.
My friend was petrified that the judge would possibly ban her from the courtroom, but it all blew over (get it? air?).
Now, because of the continued rounds of goodbyes, the remaining jurors are scared to breathe. One guy called a conference with Judge Carlos Samour to report that he had been to a doctor鈥檚 appointment on the campus where Holmes was a student.
Now come on!
So long, 901. Student. Former Juror. Now-homebody with too much time on your hands.
You could have been a contender.