A Juror's Account of the Davidson Trial

Although I received the following note regarding the Lemaricus Davidson trial from my reader/researcher David in Tennessee on the night of November5, my procrastination has failed to diminish its significance.

Nicholas,

The liestoppers forum about the Duke lacrosse hoax copied an account by a juror at the Davidson trial from a Knoxville-based sports forum. Here is the thread.

David
 
 

Zetaboards

Viewing Single Post From: Blog and Media Roundup - Thursday, November 5, 2009

Nov 5 2009, 07:55 AM (posted by “ABB”)

http://www.smashsouthsports.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23117

What you all need to know regarding the Davidson Trial
I have not posted here in some time. I have been very busy in many ways.

I have sent this email to this close to me only. This trial CHANGED my life in many ways. You all recognize me as a cocky, smart-ass bastard. The Bottom-Line is that we NEVER, EVER know when and where we will leave this earth. THAT was the PAINFUL YET HONEST MESSAGE I took from my civil duty...
 
 



When I was first summoned to court at the end of August, I felt that I was picked for a reason. At that point, without even answering the first question of more than 120 that we had to initially do, I felt like my semi-ignorance to the issues involving the case were a part of why I was there. I simply answered honestly and was brought back for another round of questioning. Ultimately, I do not feel like I was "chosen" for jury duty: I feel like I was part of a group that was meant to be together, as we all felt after just a very, very short time together.

There was a mixture on the jury: Conservative, Liberal, Male, Female, Black, White, Religious, Non-religious, Old, Young, Rich, Poor. I am not sure if it was fate or good judgment, but both attorneys nailed it regarding a jury that meshed. We had viewpoints from every angle of life.

For almost 2 weeks, we were isolated but very well taken care of. The county did a very good job of NOT jeopardizing the case in any way while respecting our needs/lives. At no point did we feel threatened in any way EXCEPT for when we arrived back at our hotel after our verdict to see a TV reporter with a microphone and a cameraman. They were quickly dispersed

We listened for almost 2 weeks to every single angle of testimony that exists. For those that haven't seen the evidence in this case, it's absolutely overwhelming regarding Davidson's involvement. Davidson/his accomplices ended up at Washington Ridge Apartments on that night to see Ethel Freeman, a woman Davidson owed money to for furniture she'd let him have. He met her through her son. She agreed to let him take some of it upon the belief that he would pay her back once every 2 weeks. According to Ethel, KUB contacted her on the Friday before Chris and Channon were abducted to tell her they would turn her power off that coming Monday IF she didn't have their money to them by that day. That is how and why Davidson and his accomplices ended up seeing Chris and Channon: They had traveled there to pay that debt. Chris and Channon were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

They car-jacked Chris and Channon at that point. This was around 9:30. We don't know for sure. They took them back to Chipman Street.

What we do know:

- Channon called her father at 12:33 AM to tell him everything was ok and that they would be home in a couple hours. At this point, they had been kidnapped and Chris had been raped. We know he had been raped by the amount of neutrophils presents in the area that was torn. He was raped around 2 hours before he was shot, which was 1:45 AM.

- Chris was first shot in the lower back, which paralyzed him as it severed his spinal cord. Then he was shot in the shoulder. He was then finished off execution-style. He walked there barefoot, pants removed, feet bound with his own belt, mount gagged with his socks. His hands and feet were tied with fabric from Davidson's home. He was left there, dead.

- After Chris was shot dead at 1:45, Davidson made a phone call to a friend of his girlfriend, Daphne Sutton, from Chris's PHONE at 2:00, hoping she wouldn't recognize the number, as she'd ignored his calls that day.

- Channon Christian was RAPED at least once between 2:00 and around 5:00 AM, when SOMEONE went BACK to the train tracks to set Chris's body on FIRE to conceal evidence.

- Channon Christian died sometime between the middle of the day on Sunday and Monday. The medical examiner could only isolate it to 24 hours.

Channon Christian died with her eyes OPEN. She suffocated to death. Davidson's handprints were on the 3 outermost bags of 5 she was put in. Why she was left in a trashcan on Chipman Street we will never know. Maybe Davidson thought those that fled to Kentucky were going to dispose of her body? Maybe they meant to place that trash can on their street somewhere for Waste Industries to pick up, mixing it with the rest of the trash cans?

When we went back for initial deliberation on the 45 counts the state presented, we deliberated for around 8 hours. We spent about half of those on whether or not Davidson was responsible for Chris Newsom's rape. I believed, as did all the men on the jury, that he was criminally responsible, as he had a chance to take action at any point before that to stop it from happening and did not. The women on the jury did not feel so, as they didn't want to/could not place that blame on him, as they felt he could not have known that Chris would be raped, believing that he wasn't there. My argument was that, if we can convict Davidson on the Murder of Chris Newsom without knowing he was there, how could we not believe he knew about/was responsible for the rape? I/we were right, but, ultimately, we conceded on this count. It hurt me badly to not hold Davidson responsible for the TORTURE of Chris Newsom on this count, but that is exactly what we did.

When we got to the charges of Murder for Davidson in this phase, it took us about 20 minutes to run through the 16 charges. There were no objections. There were no questions. There was no doubt. We all believed beyond any shadow of any doubt that he was guilty for both murders and all underlying actions.

We went back to court on Thursday fully prepared to give a decision of Death or Life in Prison. We went to bed on Wednesday night with that on our minds and hearts. None of us slept well. We were disappointed when Judge B told us on Thursday around 4 that we would need to come back the next day. We had voted and we were prepared to stay until midnight to reach a verdict. We did not want to go back to our hotel and think about that another night.

When we arrived at the Courthouse on Friday, before (and after) hearing closing arguments, we were split 8-4 as to Davidson's fate. Eight of us believed he should receive death. Four of us were not sure. We did as we were instructed to do, voting on Aggravating factors vs. Mitigating factors. The aggravating factors were overwhelming BUT we are all human: Our jury had mothers and sisters. Out of the 5+ hours we deliberated, about 4 of them were spent in prayer and in reading the Bible and reaching the Moral Certainty called for by Law. This was the deciding and ultimate factor in our decision. We obeyed both God's law and Man's law.

When we layed out our arguments for or against death, mine were:

- Davidson had 2 C's: Choice and Chance. This man had MORE chances than his siblings that DIDN'T become killers/rapists. And he had a CHOICE. The "psychiatrist" Peter Brown laid out 8 factors for us that he made sound INEVITABLE that Davidson would become a violent offender. Out of those 8, guess who had, without question, 4 of them? President Barack Obama.

- A death sentence to him is MORE MERCIFUL than what he gave those he killed. He will NOT be tortured. He will get say say goodbye to his family.

- He should have to live each and every day knowing that what he did to those 2 young adults will lead to his death. The thought of them every single day and what happened to them is exactly what he left for their family.

We, the Jury, absolutely did the right thing in this case. It was the hardest thing I believe any of us have ever done, but we held true to each other and to justice. There are NO WINNERS in this incident. It's all sad and unfortunate, for all sides involved. We only hope that our doing what Tennessee State Law asked us to will lead to another step towards some sort of closure for all of those involved.