Service means Citizenship: Part 3 of 6

[jchrisobrien]

Being on a jury is like being an extra in a disaster movie. Take a cross section of humanity, any ethnicity, any

background, any gender or preference. Watch them all take a bus to work. Watch them find out that their bus was

wired with explosives that are set to go off if the speed limit drops below 55, and see how the come together. Or

don't. That's kinda what jury duty is like.

The stakes here for us are much lower. We won't die if we don't come to a majority conclusion. No one gets

voted off the island for not participating. But we will be deciding whether a doctor is guilty of malpractice. We

will be deciding if the plaintiff is awarded damages or not for the loss of his wife. (Yes, now that I am giving

you details, you may speculate that the case is over. And you'd be right.) We have been handed responsibility over

people we never knew before this case, and our collaborators are people we've never met before today.

Fourteen citizens of Massachusetts sat together for five days. We listened to our names read aloud as we were

called to serve. We listed to testimony from expert medical witnesses and grieving family members. We heard facts

listed and reiterated and dissected before our eyes and ears. Slide shows. Chalkboard diagrams. Opening and

closing statements. Cross examinations and conflicting testimony. And when all was said and done, we were locked in

a small room eight floors above the chilly Cambridge streets, and asked to render a verdict in the case.

As the hours dragged into days, these strangers began to reveal facts about themselves through their

conversations. There were well reasoned arguments, and blanket generalizations. Common sense clashed with personal

experience. There were several schools of logic that simply couldn't connect. Comments flew like bullets, and our

chairs began to feel like trenches as the hours passed. No one really wanted to tell people what to think, but when

two sides don't agree on an issue, someone has to give. We were teachers, and techies. We owned stores, and

roofing companies. We were the jury, and we had a job to do.

Comments

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

for some reason when I read the cut tag my first thought was "Another Forrest quiz?"