Studying

 

Buckaroo is fortunate enough to have a study partner. 

Roosevelt and Buck

Finn vs. Hempstead

Picture was taken from their Web site, because Marty didn't take pictures of the court proceedings. Not that we really could, because there was zero electricity in the courtroom and our only source of light was 8 oil lamps. Did I mention it is DARK at night? 

Last Saturday night, Marty and I attended a reenactment of the 1856 Arkansas trial of Finn vs. Hempstead (Hempstead County, Arkansas). It was an absolute blast! The dinner theater was held at the Historic Washington State Park, which is about 40 miles from here. 

The town of Old Washington, Arkansas became the de facto state capital during the Civil War when the North took over Little Rock. Fast-forward 150+ years, the State of Arkansas turned the town into a state park. The buildings still exist--several are in use, including the museum-courthouse, tavern and blacksmith shop (ever watch "Forged in Fire" on the History Channel?). Of note, the world's oldest magnolia tree is also in residence and that girl is about 200 years old and still blooms. 

Back to Saturday night. 

This trial by jury event the park runs is so popular, people come from all over. We sat with three delightful folks from Little Rock. A family of 20 from Houston showed up as well. All together, there were about 60 of us who met at the tavern for either a pork loin or chicken fricassee dinner. Both meals came with a "pie" that someone at our table dubbed "chocolate fricassee," because nobody we dined with knew exactly what either the chicken dish or the pie-thing was. By the way, there's a misleading picture of this pie-thing on the Old Washington Historic Park Facebook page. Knock yourself out. 

After dinner, we all convened at the courthouse--which I should point out, one does not walk to from the tavern because Historic Washington State is DARK when the sun goes down because electricity wasn't invented in 1856. But, we didn't think about that when we journeyed the 1/2 mile over to walk off our chocolate fricassee.  

During dinner, the jury summons went out and wouldn't you know? I ended up on the mock jury for this mock trial. I was met at the courthouse by the sheriff, donned in his best 1856 attire, who escorted me to the jury bench to be seated with 11 of my closest peers. All the characters in the trial wore appropriate costumes and stayed in character, even when an audience member from Houston-faction needed assistance with the back door.   

The case was interesting. Mr. Finn hand-wrote a will for Mr. Crosby to sign on his deathbed in 1851. Finn selected his two witnesses. Additionally, he scurried out other folks who happened to be at Crosby's house at the time of the signing, ensuring nobody advocated for Crosby. One of the will's "witnesses" testified he didn't actually didn't see Crosby sign. He'd shown up late to the party because he'd been at the tavern. Plus, all those who testified divulged Crosby had been delusional that day, talking about yellow butterflies, green squirrels and leprechauns. As a jury, we were to decide was Cosby in his right mind at the time the will was signed and was the will valid?

Let me just say, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Even on a jury. 

But there's always one %^@*&^*($&@^* attention-seeking Karen. Our jury's Karen asserted a handwriting analysis needed to be done on the will. Oh yes, a doctor needed to certify Crosby was truly delusional because the three witnesses separately saying under oath the guy had imaginary friends and wanted to slide down rainbows didn't constitute a medical diagnosis. Additionally, it wasn't "fair" to the Finn family to lose all that money five years after Crosby died. 

However, the frustrating part for me was that Karen wouldn't go along with the idea that this was a performance. We were part of the show. The first rule of improv is to go along--not that any of this was truly brought up during our sequestering, but come on! Read the room! 

Whatever. 

A juror is allowed to have their own opinion. 

After ten minutes of deliberation, Karen doubled down and we were a hung jury. Yes, I know that in a civil trial only a majority is needed to render a verdict. This fell on deaf ears, as the actors had their own agenda. Incidentally, the real Finn vs. Hempstead case went to the Arkansas Supreme Court. It turns out, 11 of us had a similar opinion as the Supreme Court and didn't really care how "fair" it was for the Finn family. 

Official-ish Jury Summons