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Sadie Utley

Ms. Moser

Period 3

24 April 2016

Juror Response to Mock Trial

For the Mock Trial of Dale Reynolds, I was able to have a taste of two views. I was an

audience member that was soon upgraded to a Juror. The two views are very simple, but have

many differences. An audience member is almost exactly like a Juror during the trial, but the

audience member is not legally allowed to share their opinion to the judge. Now a member of

the Jury is allowed to share their opinions. In fact it is their job to share their opinions to the

judge. When the trial was coming to an end we were asked to leave the room. In the hall we

compiled all of our opinions into one and came to our final verdict. Our final verdict was that

Dale Reynolds is to be accused of second degree murder.

The discussion that we had in the hall was difficult at first because of all the differing of

opinions, but as each opinion was shared it opened the minds of others which helped us come up

with our verdict. My opinion at first was that Dale Reynolds was to be accused of first degree

murder. The evidence that proves my opinion was stated by the judge. In summary he first

stated that Dale had great anger towards father simpson. Second he also stated that Dale knew

he was going to kill him. He had his gun loaded and was beginning to tell people his want to kill

someone. This is a premeditated murder which is first degree murder. Other points were

brought to the attention of the jury that would defend second or third degree murder. Dale was in

fact drunk when the event occurred which would prove his state of mind to be differed. This

defends second degree murder. Dale also had a syndrome known as battered child syndrome.
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This was because he was abused and watched his mother be abused by father simpson. This

statement is what defended his actions towards murder as self defense. All of these great

arguments for each verdict helped us conclude a conclusion of second degree murder because he

had signs of every type of murder.

I enjoyed being a juror. I enjoyed it because I liked having a purpose and a voice for a

decision that was significant to someone elses life. This helped me better understand justice and

real world jury situations.