Searching for my daily fix of courtroom-drama video, I came across an interview with a Bismarck, ND, juror that perfectly captures what I experienced as a juror, namely, the stressful nature of the jury experience:

http://www.truveo.com:80/Murder-Trial-Jury-Duty-is-Difficult/id/72057615580291407

This is a CBS affiliate's coverage of a retrial, so I assume that means the juror being interviewed served on the jury in the original trial, which apparently ended in a hung jury. He gives prospective jurors excellent advice. If you’ve been summoned, I recommend you take a look at this.

During the interview, the juror mentions learning a great deal about the defendant’s prior record after the trial. He admits that the new information has changed his attitude about the case and speculates that jurors in the second trial are more likely than he to know something about the case’s context (for better or worse).

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, closing arguments in the Dossett-Leath trial have been delayed a day. I can’t help but wonder how much that jury knows about other incidents involving the defendant, which were carefully excluded from the current trial. This situation—knowing more than they should—could also result in a hung jury, just as not knowing in the ND case may have led to a hung jury.