An hour into deliberations, it was me voting to convict, 11 to acquit. Two hours later, conviction on 3 of 4 counts. While I was a college debater, I'm hardly Mr. Charisma..I was astonished how easy it was for me to control people and change their minds.
It is INCONCEIVABLE to me I'd enter a jury room with one opinion on guilt and vote a different way. I'd stay there for months or hang the jury before I gave in.
For the most part, I agree, however, I would have to be open to evidence, or testimony that I initially may have dismissed as not relevant, but may be important anyway. Certainly, the information gathering is done in the courtroom, not in the jury room, and like you, I'm not easily swayed from my decisions. But, so far, every time I've been picked for duty, they've cancelled before I even got to the courtroom. If I end up stinking up the jury room and ruining someone's best laid plans when I serve, I'll be certain to post the humor.
If you read the Voir Dire link that is in the article, you'll note how the attorneys craft their questions to try and define the jurors according to their personality type and how they try to stack the jury with preferred types and numbers of "influencers". This influential personality is not typically a personality that is easy to hide, so the Voir Dire process should be approached with cautious responses. It probably wouldn't be a great idea to tell that you and your freeper buddies go out and picket the local tyrants and their policies...unless of course you're trying to get out of jury duty.
Take care