Full Episode
Before we begin please be advised that this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence as presented during the trial. Please take care while listening. It's still Monday, January 20th, 2025, day eight of the trial. But now things feel different. The alternate jurors had already been selected and asked to leave the courtroom. Exiled to their own alternate jury room until further notice.
Four people who had been part of our group. People we had eaten with, shared rides with, walked the depths of the earth with. People who had laughed with us, sighed with us, and silently held the weight of this case with us for eight days. Suddenly, they were gone, dismissed, and it all happened so fast. The rest of us, those whose numbers weren't called, just sat there, watching them leave.
It was a gut punch, like a family suddenly being split apart. I remember feeling an ache in my stomach because those alternates weren't just observers. They were just as invested as the rest of us. They had listened to the same testimony, seen the same evidence, and developed their own opinions. But now the 16 of us were down to 12. 12 people who would carry the full weight of this next decision.
Judge Patterson didn't leave us much time to process. He continued right away, reading through our final instructions, explaining the legal framework we'd have to follow, the rules we'd need to abide by as we deliberated. It felt surreal. Everything we'd heard, everything we'd seen, was now left for us to make sense of.
And for the first time since this trial began, we were going to be allowed to speak freely. We were allowed to form opinions out loud, allowed to share our thoughts, our doubts, and our convictions. It was a big moment, and I kept thinking about Jasmine. Her texts, her voice, her fear. And I wondered if the rest of the jurors were thinking about her too.
Then the courtroom stood, and one by one, each of us walked across the hall into the jury room. It was time to deliberate on a verdict. But it felt like so much more than that now. It felt like stepping into a place where all the noise and chaos of the trial faded away.
Where everything came down to 12 people, sitting around a table, confronting the truth, and trying to decide whether justice could be found in the wreckage of something so profoundly wrong. We were about to find out if any of us were truly ready for what came next. This is Sequestered, a juror's perspective on the murder trial for Jasmine Pace. I'm Sarah, juror number 11.
Each episode, I'll take you inside the courtroom, behind the scenes, and into the weighty moments of this trial as we honor Jasmine's life and navigate the complexities of seeking justice. Let's begin. This is Episode 9, The Verdict and Sentencing. It was 4.12 p.m. when the jury room door closed behind us.
Just before the bailiff shut it, we were instructed not to begin our discussions until all 12 members were seated and present. Once we were together, we were to select a foreperson and begin our deliberations.
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