E-mail sent to Ellie Stauffer by her nephew, TR

I spent the last seven days on a jury deciding the fate of two DC men - two brothers - charged with first-degree murder. The shooting took place in July of 2002 in a forgotten area of Southeast Washington. Two men ambushed a rival in broad daylight, shooting him 11 times in the chest, back, neck, stomach and head. Eyewitnesses saw what happened, and one witness's 911 call corroborated the accounts of others in the street. 30 minutes after the shooting, one of the perpetrators came back to the top of the block - in the same red car he was seen with during the shooting. He was making sure that all of the people on the block knew he was watching them as much as they were watching him. In the days and weeks following the shooting, additional threats were made to men and women of all ages.

We deliberated for two full days, with our own federal marshal escorts and everything. In the end, despite our collective belief that both men pulled their respective triggers, we were only able to convict one of the brothers. The prosecution failed to convince us beyond a reasonable doubt that the second shooter was guilty. It was/is a terrible feeling - sending someone free despite the 100% clear gut feeling that he deserves to be punished. But that is the system. The burden was on the prosecution, and they didn't do their jobs.

As for the guilty man, I can safely say that I am a different person having put a man in jail for the rest of his life. I've never had the feelings I had yesterday, sitting there, looking across the courtroom at the terrified look on this man's face, while his mother in the audience wailed and his twenty-something public defender sat there with nothing left to do. He was guilty. I'm sure of it. But that look on his face will be with me for a long time.

More broadly, this experience served as one big fat reminder that we have a lot of work ahead of us in this country. I've always believed that our country - our society - is only as strong, only as successful, as its weakest links. Based on what I've seen/heard, we are still pretty weak. Too often we forget the importance of community...we shrug our shoulders or change the channel when we hear about another shooting as if it has nothing to do with us...as if these people aren't our neighbors.

The holiday season is approaching everyone...I hope you'll each remember to share your good fortunes with some of your neighbors, whether they be on the other side of town or the other side of the world.

TR

Reading of January 8, 2006