Juror Sarah Reed

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

I'd never been called for jury duty before. So it was definitely intriguing and honestly a little nerve wracking just not knowing what to expect, you know.

to experience jury selection firsthand. I was seated in the gallery for, like, the majority of the voir dire process. It was definitely intense, though. They started out with basic information like, what is your job? Like, what's your profession? And are you married? And then it just goes into, like, have you ever been arrested? How do you feel about police?

Yeah. So after the jury selection in Davidson County in Nashville, they said, you could be gone 10 to 14 days, pack what you need for two weeks, meet back here at the courthouse on Sunday. And then they took our phones away at the beginning right before we got in the vans. We put our luggage in and got in and drove to Chattanooga. And we were sequestered in a hotel for the whole trial.

In the hotel...

You don't have your TV. They've taken like the clock radio out of there. Of course, we don't have our phone or anything. It's just silence. It was wild.

Yes. Yeah. Think about it. You're completely cut off. So in some ways it forces you to be really present, but it's also stifling. Like you're with strangers and the only thing connecting you all is this one tragic event that you're not even allowed to talk about. So everything just kind of stays in your head. And at least that was the case for me.

All of the questions and emotions and details, you just carry them around in silence. It's almost like an emotional pressure cooker.

Right. Absolutely. Those were the hardest parts was seeing, honestly, both moms on the stand, but Katrina being the first witness that we saw. I mean, it smacks you right in the face. Not only does she look just like Jazzy, but the emotions make you want to want justice. Right. And the facts and the details, they just they have to be the things that guide you.

I had a strong sense, but I stayed open. Like we kind of after choosing our foreperson, we put it to an initial vote. with the plan kind of being to begin discussions if the vote was not unanimous, which it wasn't, there was two of us that, myself included, that were hesitant.

And I think for me, it was me just really myself needing to understand the definition of what premeditation meant and how that applied to this case.

Yeah, it was much quicker than I think anyone expected.

Yeah. I mean, it didn't really hit me until about halfway through the trial. I just remember it just smacked me in the face like, oh my gosh, like, I could bring this unique perspective from sitting in the jury box and hearing this story unfold day after day, just like as I heard it in the trial. I wanted our listeners to kind of have that same experience.

I mean, I'm assuming this is the kind of experience that is now going to stay with you forever. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This whole thing has changed me. I still haven't processed it all. I pretty much jumped right into telling this story. And yeah, it was just a very profound and life-changing experience.

Yeah, I feel honored to be.

Absolutely. It was so great to talk with you. Thank you again.

All of the questions and emotions and details, you just carry them around in silence. It's almost like an emotional pressure cooker.