Part IV:
The deliberation room was eerily quiet. There did not seem to be any shred of doubt among the crows that Todd was guilty of the crime. All the evidence pointed right at him. It was almost too easy to throw the book at him in this clear cut case. The civil servants that had spent the last several weeks deliberating over this case has no empathy for Todd or his family. The last minute speech and outcry did nothing to sway any one of them. The conversation among the jury was not even about the case so much anymore as much as it was about what each of them planned to do when they were finally released back to their normal lives.
“Does anybody have an objection or anything to add?” the head juror asked of the other 11 members. “It seems we are all on the same page with a guilty verdict on all counts.”
It was never the job of the members to question why the evidence was so easy to point at guilt. One of the more vocal members spoke up, “There is no doubt here. Nobody objects. Let’s get on with it.”
Unfortunately, there was no way any of them could have known that Todd was taking the fall for his teenage son. It was a lapse in judgment, that is how Todd always thought of it. His son had much more going for him if he could recover from his error. A life in the penal system of Kentucky would be no way to grow up in this world. His only resentment with taking the fall for him was not being there to make sure he wouldn’t repeat the same bad behavior.
To be continued…
