So to me, the end to this tragic legal drama may have been anticlimactic but it wasn't surprising. Still, it's disturbing that Christopher McCowen is serving a life sentence after a trial in which multiple jurors expressed subtle and not-so-subtle forms of racial bias. It's disturbing in light of every defendant's right to a fair and impartial jury trial; it's disturbing because the victim's family and the people of Massachusetts deserve closure to this case free from the whiff of impropriety and the lingering specter of potential injustice.

It was an extraordinarily rare post-trial hearing that took place one year ago this month in Cape Cod. But the ubiquity of stereotype and prejudice in how all of us tend to view the world makes you wonder how rare were the juror attitudes and preconceived notions that triggered this hearing. Were members of this jury particularly biased in how they saw this defendant and this case? Or did these jurors just happen to put into words the racial sentiments and expectations that many of us carry around daily, even into domains with life-and-death consequences like the courtroom?