Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Jury Duty

I got called for jury duty and had to report yesterday to the local county courthouse.

I am here at home, comfortably ensconced in my chair, which is a fine thing. I did NOT get chosen for the jury.

Still, it was, I admit, kind of an emotional experience.  I have never even got to the point of being part of jury selection before so it was new and interesting and rather sobering.

They had the defendant in the courtroom and it was a murder trial.  I was expecting each one of us to be interviewed separately but instead a bunch of random questions were asked -- not random, exactly. I mean, they were applicable about child care issues and third shift workers and whether anyone had been part of a murder case and stuff like that. I only opened my mouth once during the proceedings, to ask for the definition of circumstantial evidence.

After 5 hours and periodic breaks, the bailiff read out the jury names and I was not on the list.

I'm thankful as they expected it to last a whole week and that would have been challenging. We have a busy week ahead of us.

Still, I would have done it. Civic duty and with older kids, the child care issue isn't onerous.  It would have been a hard trial to sit through as the victim was a baby.

I am impressed with the judicial process, though.  I was listening to Exodus in the Bible on the way to the courtroom (just by chance -- I started with Genesis a while ago and I'm in Exodus now).  There was a whole bunch about how to handle stealing and murder and seduction of virgins and stuff like that.  It is way better for a man to pay 4 sheep for stealing another man's sheep than for the person who lost his sheep to KILL over it.  And in many cultures, revenge can escalate and soon people are killing each other.

I don't know the evidence about this trial.  It was a tragic situation, regardless of who is responsible. I'm glad we have a legal process in place to protect both the victim and the defendant.

And yes, I'm glad I'm not on the jury.  But I would have done it because it is my civic duty.

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