The Jury is Out

No fun stuff here -- just writing a little about my 2 1/2 weeks of civic duty that ended last week.

During the entire process, all I was allowed to tell anyone, include employers and family, was, "I'm sitting as a juror in a criminal trial." This was challenging and really inopportune for me as the one thing that might have helped me would have been to talk about it! Then, oddly, after the trial was finally completed, I didn't really want to talk about it or have anything to do with it. I'm feeling a little more detached now.

The case was an aggravated robbery/ murder. The defendant (the one the state accused of doing the crime, or at least aiding and abetting) was a man who remained calm, fixed, and almost without expression for the entire trial. He was well dressed, well groomed, and totally without any of that guilty look you would hope a guilty man would have.

More logically and importantly, sadly, the evidence against him was lacking. I don't know if this man did it or not. I do know a husband was murdered for trying to protect his wife almost 2 years ago, and that the family was very upset and -- I'm sure -- hoping for closure in this mad, mad state. I heard sniffling from their end of the courtroom as our 5 verdicts of Not Guilty were read by the judge. I didn't dare approach their gaze and kept my vision on my folded hands in front of me.

Our justice system states that everyone is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is what our panel of jurors kept coming back to, and there were just too many reasonable doubts. Now I pray for the family and for this man. If he did it, God help him, may he turn from his ways, and may God perform his own justice in his time. If he did not, which is what we would all hope, we at least kept an innocent man from having to spend his life in prison.

Here is a link to a fairly decent take on the trial:

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/57737562.html?page=1&c=y