Off Topic...Jury Duty Day Two...

This is a continuation of the post from yesterday.

On the second day of jury duty, everything went exactly the same, except we did not get the pleasure of watching the bad 80s film. This time though, I was seated as a member of the jury. It was clearly stated that the members of the jury were there to determine the facts of the case from what was presented. I am not going to go into detail regarding the particular trial I was on, but suffice to say one or both sides was/were probably lying. There was a possibility that different perspectives created different stories, but somewhere in the middle was the truth and without certainties we could not convict. It was a criminal case, which means the jury must find "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the defendant was guilty as charged. The Attorneys for both sides presented their cases and as this is the part that is usually seen in shows like Law and Order , I will exclude a description. Likewise is the giving of the verdict in court. In between is the jury deliberation. I work with Attorneys who are very curious about this part of the trail because they rarely, if ever, get to see what happens behind the closed doors of the jury's chambers. A foreperson is chosen or, basically, whoever is willing to volunteer. Our foreperson, went through all of the jury instructions and pulled out the statements of law and we deliberated as to whether the incidents were against the law as stated. Most laws have more than one criteria that must be met to be considered breaking the law. In our case one criterion was met, but another was not, thusly, the defendant did not break the law, as written.

My overall thought for the day was that if I ever had to go through the process I feel my rights would be protected because there are so many procedures to ensure things are done fairly and justly. Although I feel this way about how things might go as participant of trial, I don't have the same optimistic thoughts as part of a jury. Being in the jury pool and as part of a jury my biggest complaint would have to be how long things took to complete. I would prefer a streamlined process that was more efficient. It was a very informative day that gave me confidence in the system, except to know that by lying/or remembering a different series of events anyone can get off.