Jury duty

April 21, 2010 lorileebell

Irritation, anxiety, and that Oh my God feeling, are thoughts traveling through ones mind when they receive their jury summons — trying to figure out if there is anyway to get out of this.

These emotions should not be felt.  As a society, we should look at it as an invitation to participate in our judicial system and being proud that we live in a democracy. We could be citizens of Iraq.

Recently, I received my jury summons, and, at first, I had the feeling of dread.  Oh, I have to drive downtown in rush hour traffic, miss 2 classes, and spend my entire day cooped up in the jury waiting room.

But, that is being selfish.

What happen if the role was turned around? How would I feel if people just blew off their jury summons because they too had the same feelings I experienced when I opened up the mail box.

Our government doesn’t impose much on its citizens; paying taxes, registering for the military, and jury duty, and with these imposes we have the greatest nation in the world.  Because of these ‘forced’ imposes we have a strong military, the right to practice religion, freedom of speech, the right to run for office, the right to a trial by our peers, and the right to be innocent before proven guilty.

And Leroy Williams, the defendant, deserves these same considerations that every citizen does.

It was upsetting to actually witness at how many people did not want to be there and how disrespectful they were to the judicial system, blatantly making sure that they would NEVER be chosen for a trial their entire life.  Raising their hands to every question and in this case a few were actually racist.

Yes, racist.

It’s heartbreaking that people will say and do anything to get out of jury duty or do they really feel this way?

In this case, the jury poll was 30 people, and, at least, 5 people pulled the racist card.  They felt Leroy Williams was guilty just because he’s an African American and said that they could not give him a fair trial.

Another factor was people do not want to be bothered.  Their comments were: “I’m too busy, I don’t have a job, I can’t sit still for a long time, my mind will be on my job, I don’t like listening to court stuff, I will be bored, and I have problems paying attention.”

That’s really scary — some of these comments sound like responses from elementary children.

The potential juror’s faces were priceless too. Looking around the room, the others looked like they were the ones getting 20 years to life.

This experience has reinstated that feeling of being a true American. That we as a society shouldn’t just shrug off our civic duties and to not take our freedoms for granted, because one day we could be in Mr. Williams shoes.

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