jury duty: the aftermath
Nov. 19th, 2007 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
axolotl9so back the first week of November, I got called for jury duty (didn't get picked, but spent 2 days in selection).
The trial apparently ended last week - here's the result:
Santa Cruz Sentinel: Jury convicts "Operation Red Bull" suspect
Two comments on Senile coverage:
1) Good to know that he didn't get convicted on the charge I thought was most sketchy - that of "associating with known gang members." The guy's already up for 3 strikes, I just thought that was piling on.
2) They describe the gun he had (and attempted to sell) as an "AR-7 assault survival rifle." Ha. While the AR-7 did originate from ArmaLite (home of the AR-15, which became the M-16), it is in no way an assault rifle. It's a .22LR survival gun with a shorty barrel and flimsy holster/stock, designed to go in aircrew survival packs just in case there's not a helicopter immediately available to pick someone up. Describing it as an assault rifle is probably straight from the trial transcript and sounds like the prosecutor playing off the jury members' ignorance about guns (any jury candidate who said they knew anything about guns was booted off during the peremptory challenges - coincidence? I think not). It's not like they needed to call it an assault rifle - they had him dead to rights for illegal gun possession and illegal sale.
The trial apparently ended last week - here's the result:
Santa Cruz Sentinel: Jury convicts "Operation Red Bull" suspect
Two comments on Senile coverage:
1) Good to know that he didn't get convicted on the charge I thought was most sketchy - that of "associating with known gang members." The guy's already up for 3 strikes, I just thought that was piling on.
2) They describe the gun he had (and attempted to sell) as an "AR-7 assault survival rifle." Ha. While the AR-7 did originate from ArmaLite (home of the AR-15, which became the M-16), it is in no way an assault rifle. It's a .22LR survival gun with a shorty barrel and flimsy holster/stock, designed to go in aircrew survival packs just in case there's not a helicopter immediately available to pick someone up. Describing it as an assault rifle is probably straight from the trial transcript and sounds like the prosecutor playing off the jury members' ignorance about guns (any jury candidate who said they knew anything about guns was booted off during the peremptory challenges - coincidence? I think not). It's not like they needed to call it an assault rifle - they had him dead to rights for illegal gun possession and illegal sale.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-20 06:06 pm (UTC)I had no idea. Why did they call it operation red bull though?
operation red bull
Date: 2007-11-20 11:29 pm (UTC)