1.00pm - By ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Washington
Oprah Winfrey, the queen of daytime television, may only have been paid US$17.20 a day for her recent stint as a juror but she plans to cash in on the experience by featuring it on her show next week.
Billionaire Ms Winfrey was one of 12 jurors who on Wednesday convicted a Chicago man of murder following a three-day trial in Cook County, Illinois.
Next week some of those jurors will appear on the show with her. Just in case anyone might have thought Ms Winfrey was somehow trivialising the affair, she assured a mass of reporters gathered outside the court she had taken it all very seriously.
"I think it was an eye-opener for all of us," she said.
"It's a huge reality check; there's a whole other world going on out there. When your life intersects with others in this way, it is forever changed."
She added: "The bigger story here for me is a man is dead, murdered, supposedly over US$50, and that the real war is still going on in the inner-city streets every day. Young black men killing each other. It was one of the saddest, saddest experiences I've ever had."
Ms Winfrey, who initially opposed going on the jury because she believed she was too opinionated said she believed the media attention surrounding the trial had been unhelpful.
Reporters paid great attention to her every move in the court, down to such fascinating details as what Ms Winfrey ate for lunch on Wednesday - jerked chicken and potatoes.
"This is not good for the victim's family. This is not about Oprah Winfrey. The fact is, a man has been murdered," she said, without explaining how next week's show will help the family.
Other jurors, meanwhile, were delighted to have been sharing the jury bench with the television star.
"It was a lot of fun," said Suzanne Goodman, who has agreed to appear in the special feature next week.
"It was like being on her show."
One person who will not be participating in the show is the defendant, 27-year-old Dion Coleman. Ms Winfrey and the other jurors took just two hours to find him of murder. He is due to be sentenced next month and faces up to 45 years in jail.
Jurors deliberated for more than two hours before convicting Coleman of first-degree murder in the February 2002 shooting death of Walter Holley, 23.
"It was not any easy decision to make," Winfrey said.
"All of us have taken to heart this decision."
More than a dozen reporters and sketch artists filled the seats in the cramped courtroom. Winfrey called all the attention distracting.
Prosecutors said Coleman and Holley had argued over a counterfeit US$50 bill, and Coleman shot Holley 11 times. Some had argued that Ms Winfrey's fame made her an unsuitable juror. However, "she was accepted by both parties and we want fair, intelligent jurors on a jury whether it's Miss Winfrey or anyone else," said prosecutor Kathy Van Kampen.
Defence lawyer Cynthia Brown said she had thought Winfrey would be a good juror because she had been a lawsuit defendant - in a 1998 defamation case brought by Texas cattlemen - and might better understand what it's like to be accused of something.
The Texas farmers accused her of making false statements about the risks of mad cow disease on her show. A jury exonerated Ms Winfrey.
- INDEPENDENT
Oprah to use juror experience on her show
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