Found Guilty!

On Thursday, I headed back over to the Beadle County Courthouse over in Huron to hear the rest of the jury trial for the rape case.  There was only one more witness that had to take the stand for the Defense Attorney and then it went into closing statements for both the State's Attorney who is trying to find the defendant accused of rape guilty, and then a closing statement from his Defense Attorney. What happens during a jury trial like this, is that the State's Attorney has to prove their case - that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt - whereas the Defense Attorney doesn't necessarily have to prove that the defendant is not guilty, but rather try to "poke holes" in the State's argument to show there isn't enough consistent evidence to convict the defendant of the crime.  I think it would be very hard being a Defense Attorney and representing someone who you believe is probably guilty, but you have to try to provide reasons as to why there isn't enough probable cause and evidence to convict them of the crime.

This is the link to the State's Attorney staff that I was able to meet and hang out with on Wednesday and Thursday:  http://bcsa.us/index.cfm?page=about.  I worked and talked the most with Kimberly Zachrison... But I also talked a great deal with Dan Nelson on Thursday who was the State's Attorney for this particular case and trial.  I was able to watch him make his arguments to the jury, and I really admired the way he spoke and argued the case for the victim of this rapist.  After closing arguments from both sides, the jury went to deliberate and come up with a verdict.  It actually only took them about 30 minutes to come up with a verdict and we were called back into court.  The defendant was found guilty - So he will head back to the County Jail until his sentencing, which probably won't happen for a couple months.

On Friday, I headed back into Gillette Office after the entire week of being in several different counties for court, and there were only two people in the office!  I worked until noon and there was nothing else for me to do so I went home :)