Oprah's Emotional Conviction
August 19, 2004

Few events in a person's life touch them deeply enough to change them, but Oprah Winfrey's turn on jury duty did just that. We caught up with the Queen of Daytime just hours after she and her fellow jurors rendered a verdict and she filled us in on her emotions.

"It's one of the saddest, saddest experiences I've ever had," Oprah told us. "When your life intersects with other peoples' lives in this way, it is forever changed, and what you choose to do about it is up to you."

Oprah and her fellow jurors chose to convict 27-year-old Dion Coleman of murder. So what was the jury like behind closed doors? Well to start with, John Fallert, not Winfrey led the jury.

"I took one for the team and took the pressure off Miss Winfrey," Fallert told us.

"I think everyone felt I would bogart my way into foremanship," Oprah admitted. But not only was Winfrey not the foreman, she didn't even think she should have been on the jury.

"I feel it was unnecessary and unwanted attention, me being here," she told us. "The bigger story here for me is that a man is dead, murdered supposedly over $50, and the real war is still going on in the inner-city streets every day."

And Oprah plans to bring attention to this war by having her fellow jurors on her show. "I was sitting there the whole time thinking, 'I could have her on my show, I could have her on my show,'" Winfrey said.

The episode may even include the victim's mother, who touched Oprah's heart when she took the stand: "When she was first asked to state her name, 'Irene Holly,' 'And how many children do you have,' and she said, 'Four, but I used to have five.'"

You can look for the Oprah jury reunion show as early as this Monday.


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