True story about juries....
My first job out of law school was at a suburban Chicago firm. Though in Cook County (just barely), our office was mostly staffed by people who were carved out of cream cheese.
Just as I was starting, our receptionist was out on Jury duty in Cook County's notorious 26th & California courthouse. Because it was a homicide trial, she was out for over a week.
On her return, she was very excited to report that she was, at the ripe age of 23, the foreperson of the jury. She also reported, earnestly, that the deliberations took two days, but eventually they found the Defendant guilty of all counts. By her telling, they struggled because of the fact that the murder occurred at night, in a dark walkway between two bungalows, and the only witness had a limited view. Our receptionist reported, in her newly acquired street saavy, that these dark walkways are popular places among gang bangers for ambushes of the very type that had occurred here, and it had come out at trial that the Defendant was a known gang banger, in a rival gang from the Victim. To her mind, then, two and two just simply added up to four that a gang member had done the deed, and probably this particular one, since both the ASA and defense counsel kept referring to the murder as being done in the "gang way".
For those of you who have never lived in Chicago, the 5 foot wide sidewalk area between two houses is referred to as the gangway.
