Opinion ID: 3065125
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Uncle Frank

Text: Gholston testified at the 1997 hearing that as she was considering how to get out of serving on the Hamilton jury, she experienced a clearing of conscience, or a clearing of the mind, that led her to conclude that she should not fabricate an excuse to avoid jury service. In her own words: “it was just my mind cleared up and I said well, I have no excuse.” At another point, Gholston testified that Uncle Frank may have caused her to have this clearing of conscience, but she also stated that he never spoke to her and she never felt his presence. Any potential inconsistency in this testimony is easily resolved through the possibilities that Gholston attributed her clearing of mind to Uncle Frank after she experienced it, or that thinking about her uncle triggered her clearing of mind. Accordingly, the record fairly supports the California Supreme Court’s finding that Gholston “experienced no direct encounter with her Uncle Frank’s spirit,” and that the fact that she in some sense “felt the uncle’s presence, and was thereby reassured to serve and to render her verdicts, did not cause her to prejudge the case.” Id. at 618.