This is what worries me. I was on a jury last year, and it became clear that some jurors will completely ignore the judges directions if they feel they know the guilt or innocence of a person. Some, straight up say it- in the jury room of course- obviously they tell the judge they will follow them or they wouldn't have been sitting there.
It went the right way, in the end, (meaning it followed the judge's directions) but I was shocked that some of the jurors who wanted to follow the directions were swayed by realizing that others didn't, and would begin negotiating with them- Like, 'we're never going to all agree on that one, so how about if we give in on this one, and you go with us on that one'. I actually was losing sleep and thinking I was going to have to call this out to the judge (thank goodness I didn't). It is really a lot of pressure. My sister actually did have to when she was on a jury who were doing the same thing. A lot of the jurors are retired, not working etc. The ones with jobs, who start really getting affected if the trial goes long, start getting a little crazy, IMO. Like thinking they didn't sign on for this. Etc, etc. I get stressed thinking about it. Some of the jurors who I originally thought would completely stick to their guns started wavering. Then they started looking at me, like I was being unreasonable for saying we had to follow the judge's directions. Like I was naive and 'this is real life, you have to have some give and take'. There's an old joke that asks would you want to be judged by a group of 12 people who are not smart enough to get out of jury duty? Well, that's just sad, but, guess what? A lot of these people shouldn't be on a jury. I hope it's better in SC and sorry for the rant.