I served on a jury for a murder trial in Dallas. I was the only juror who voted Not Guilty at first, in the end we aquited 
The guy on trial had stabbed a guy that had attacked him 2 nights earlier and tried to kill him. When the guy got out of jail he went back to the defendants apartment and attacked him again, the defendant grabbed a knife off the counter and stabbed him once, puncturing the heart.
Clearly self defense, there were wittnesses to both attacks. I really can't see why the DA wasted tax payer $$ bringing the guy to trial. But it is even harder for me to undertsand why 11 people wanted to convict him. Maybe it was because the defendant was from Africa? who knows. But we deliberated over 8 hours, and most of it was very heated arguments over a person's right to protect himself. I finally got through to them.
The guy on trial had stabbed a guy that had attacked him 2 nights earlier and tried to kill him. When the guy got out of jail he went back to the defendants apartment and attacked him again, the defendant grabbed a knife off the counter and stabbed him once, puncturing the heart.
Clearly self defense, there were wittnesses to both attacks. I really can't see why the DA wasted tax payer $$ bringing the guy to trial. But it is even harder for me to undertsand why 11 people wanted to convict him. Maybe it was because the defendant was from Africa? who knows. But we deliberated over 8 hours, and most of it was very heated arguments over a person's right to protect himself. I finally got through to them.
