Jury Duty

Today I finished Jury Duty and have come home feeling mentally shattered by the experience which consisted of three days of sitting and listening to evidence, testimony, statements etc. For the record we found the accused gulity on all counts (robbery, armed and aggrevated).

Whilst my mind and conscience is clear that we came to the right decision it is a difficult and heart wretching decision to come to. We have convicted a young girl for a serious offence that will probably result in jail time (albiet minimal). I certainly hope that she comes out the other side with some rehabilitation and a better sense of what she wants and can achieve out of life.

It is the defence lawyers job to create 'reasonable' doubt in the jury's mind that the accused did not commit the crime, discredit any evidence that point to the guilt of the accused and create doubt that it was someone else who committed the offence even though all other evidence says the accused is guilty. BUT what is reasonable doubt? As far as I'm concerned as we weren't there at the time the crime was committed and there is no certainty about what actually happened and therefore there will always be doubt, but was is a reasonable amount of doubt? All the jurors believed the girl we convicted was in the car and committed the crime but the defence lawyer (aka bulldog chick as she came to be known by the jurors) was easily able to create doubt in testimonies the vicitims and the other witnesses (co-accussed) gave.

After a few hours of careful and well thought about deliberation we all came to the conclusion that the amount of doubt she had created in our minds what not 'reasonable' and that the facts of the evidence far out weighed any other scenarios that she put our way.

Although I know that what she did was wrong and through her actions she has left an innocent women scarred for the rest of her life I feel really bad for the pain and sorrow our decision has caused her family but hope it has brought some closure and sense of justice to her victim.

I certainly hope that it will be a very long time before my name is drawn again to partake in my citizen's duty to sit on a jury.