The trial itself had gone on for several weeks.
Now, in the jury room, it had been going on for days. Everyone was getting tired and worn down by the endless cycle of debate and sometimes argument. Just one troublesome member was holding out, and he wouldn’t be moved. He kept putting ‘not guilty’ on the voting slips that were passed around. The men and women of the jury sat glaring at him when, yet again, the slips were counted.
The odd man out squirmed a little before speaking. “It’s the principle, isn’t it? Innocent until proven…”
The most aggressive member slapped the table. He said, “Surely, it’s a pretty straightforward case. All the evidence is there.”
Troublesome said, “You say all the evidence.”
Aggressive replied, “Yes, the DNA! It has him banged to rights. There may be some doubt about the fingerprint identification and I agree that the blood type was inconclusive, but you can’t question the DNA.”
Troublesome shook his head. “But, that’s it, isn’t it? You’ve hit the nail on the head there, you certainly can question the DNA.”
“What do you mean?” said aggressive.
Troublesome threw up his arms. “Look, all I’m saying is mistakes have been made in the collection process, as well as cases where samples have been mislabelled. The chain-of-custody process can go wrong and has shown up as being a matter of human error.” He shrugged. “That’s where there has to be some doubt.”
The foreman said, “You know, he does have a point.”
It may well be that a killer went free that day… legally.