Have you ever served on a jury? I have once and experienced voir dire twice

[Journeyman]

25. Yes. Had a surprise mystery witness, a confession in open court, and an immediate arrest . . .

It was all very Perry Mason-ish. Who would have thought we'd have so much excitement in a case involving switched price tags (which gives you an idea how long ago this was)?

The defendants roommate was the surprise witness. He threw the courtroom into a tizzy when he confessed to the crime. He was immediately arrested.

Like you, we knew the defendant was guilty. But he was in the country on a visa and would have been deported if convicted, so we assumed his buddy copped to the crime to keep his friend in the U.S. Under the guidelines the judge gave us, we couldn't convict, despite our unshakeable conviction of his guilt.

Afterwards, the DA (a young guy trying one of his first cases) asked us what our thought process had been. He understood, but conceded the roommate wouldn't be tried at all. His lawyer would just claim someone had already been tried and found innocent of this crime, then wonder if the DA was just picking up people off the streets willy-nilly and charging them. Probably more to it but you get the gist.