After the prosecution wrapped up, last Thursday I thought that it would take a pretty bad defense case to make me think the defendant was guilty. They must have thought so too, since they didn't put any on defense at all.

Since the entire case rested on an illegible scrawl on a pawn ticket, I couldn't say that I was convinced "beyond a reasonable doubt". I was sort of convinced, but given that my handwriting was the despair of Mrs. Gwinn, my first grade teacher, and that it isn't much better than that now, I couldn't really vote, "Guilty". Apparently half of us could, though. The standard of proof in a criminal case is even higher than in a custody case, so I asked one young lady, "Would you be willing to give up your children?" based on this evidence. It would have been really compelling, except that she didn't have children.

So back we go tomorrow.