Jury Duty
So I have been totally meaning to write about this but I keep on forgetting. Well as soon as the New Year rang in I received notice to appear for jury duty. At first I was annoyed but then I thought, hey I will get time off at work so that was great. So when I arrived to the court house I was greeted by two individuals having an argument outside. Anyway I had to go into this huge room with all these people just waiting to hear what's going to happen next. Well eventually everyone had to go into this courtroom where the accused had to plea in front of us. So the Judge reads the charge of "accused of second degree murder", WHAT!! The whole court room of potential jurors gasped. The judges right hand person (I forget the name of her position) had to read out random names that were drawn from a drum. So after the reading of 60 names my name was not chosen. I thought man now I have to go back to work :-(
The judge informed us that we may be called to come back if they do not make a decision.
Well they did eventually call me back and basically I was chosen to be on the jury. I had to go into the witness box where the defense lawyer asked me about my occupation and if I was biased because the accused is black and the victim is white. Then the people who were already on the jury, the crown and the defense had to decided if they wanted me to be on the jury based on my answers and they all said yes, my heart just dropped. I mean I am on a jury that has to decide if this man should be sent to jail for life. Well after the jury was selected we all sat in the room just shocked and in disbelief.
So the trial lasted only 3 days because the accused plead guilty to 2nd degree murder. Out of this whole experience I realized that there is a whole other "world" out there that I had no idea existed.
The judge informed us that we may be called to come back if they do not make a decision.
Well they did eventually call me back and basically I was chosen to be on the jury. I had to go into the witness box where the defense lawyer asked me about my occupation and if I was biased because the accused is black and the victim is white. Then the people who were already on the jury, the crown and the defense had to decided if they wanted me to be on the jury based on my answers and they all said yes, my heart just dropped. I mean I am on a jury that has to decide if this man should be sent to jail for life. Well after the jury was selected we all sat in the room just shocked and in disbelief.
So the trial lasted only 3 days because the accused plead guilty to 2nd degree murder. Out of this whole experience I realized that there is a whole other "world" out there that I had no idea existed.
Hey HD, do you think he was guilty? Great story!
Posted by
RC |
24/2/06 5:12 PM