Opinion:
Serving on a jury - truly an important job

This is a comment concerning the flip side of serving on a jury. Our family knows what a hardship it is to get called to jury duty. But consider not the inconvenience for which the defendant has brought you to this place but perhaps the fact that this person wasn't willing to settle on a plea bargain, which admits guilt and also carries a lifetime record. Taking a gamble on 12 people to listen, to take their oath seriously, and to make sure, without even the smallest reasonable doubt that they will bring forth a fair verdict is perhaps an innocent person's only recourse.

If you want to blame your being jerked around on anyone, ask the prosecutor about his/her last minute bargaining tactics to save his budget from busting before he wants it to. After all, he has to answer to you…the taxpayer. Trials cost money.

Our family knows that by the time you get to the courthouse, you have either just got off work, are supposed to be at work, or just plain don't want to be there. Then, there are the few, the proud, the ones who just want a day off from work.

Both lawyers go over the "candidate sheet," scrutinizing every word, picking through to see who gets kicked off right away, and who "just might work." While you're sitting there wondering what excuse just might get you thrown off, consider how very important your task is to some family. It's the difference between heartache and jubilation.

Waiting hours for a jury to form, watching painstakingly at how one decides who is right and who is wrong. Questions, questions, questions…and YOU are not even on trial. And for what - mileage and a few dollars?

You are given a timeline when the trial might be over, but could you go one more day if you had to? Then, when all else fails and you find yourself "one of the chosen few," you console yourself that you are in it so you might as well make the best of it. After a while your mind starts to drift about weather, errands, work, your uncomfortable seat, what you could have been doing if not for this "task." Oh the droning…will it ever stop? And then the trial extends one more day than you had planned.

But that last day is all this family has been waiting for…a chance for their son's side to be heard. Unfortunately, not all the players have their head in the game. You see the tide has turned. The defendant has now become an inconvenience. The jury, at least some, no longer makes eye contact with the defendant. They have already made up their mind before all the testimony is complete. They lack concentration and stare at their feet, maybe no one will notice that they shut their eyes for a little bit. They count the pictures on the wall, check out the ceiling, count the windows and seats.

We watched in horror as one juror fell asleep more than once and two others began to nod off. One gentleman on the front row laid his head on the back of this seat, stared at the ceiling and twirled in his chair.

Finally it's over and you are asked to make a decision. It's late, it went on one day too many. Supper hour has come and you just want to go home. So you make a decision that will ultimately cost a person 20-50 years…in just under half an hour.

If I sound bitter, I am. My son, your son, anyone's son deserves the very best. I know first hand how very important a trustworthy jury is. We truly know the sacrifice you make, taking time out of your day or days to do your civic duty.

The next time you are called to serve on a jury, please do your homework. The prosecutor is not going to give you how many years a person is facing; or tell you how many plea bargains that person turned down to bring this case to trial. Make sure you understand that this may very well be the most important job you will ever do and for goodness sake, please do not fall asleep.
Cathi Woodward
                Flora