JURY DUTY

I had lived in St. Louis a little over a year when I received a notice to serve on a Petite Jury in the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri.

After preliminary questions from the attorneys and instructions from the Judge 12 of us were selected to serve as jurors. The State was charging the defendant before us with 12 First Degree assault and criminal actions and murder.

The people who made up the Jury were a cross section of citizens. One woman was a security guard for a Casino. She wore her gun belt, without gun or ammunition, and trooper boots. Two social workers, a teacher, a retired bank custodian, a no-nonsense, nursing home administrator, a young woman working for a medical office, a man involved in research, two elderly women, a man who was a producer at a local television station who wondered why he had been chosen when usually he is dismissed, a hip cosmetic sales woman who as the door was closed behind us commented, "let's get this over today," and me.

A full box of the defendant's family, friends and steady court observers were there through out the testimony. We heard from one state's witness and others who were familiar with the neighborhood where the crimes took place and described the lack of neighbors to get involved or call the police when crimes were committed. Our deliberations were serious and went four days. We found the defendant guilty on all counts except murder. That charge is still pending and the defendant is in jail.

Jury Trials are sobering. They bring into light not only the charges against a defendant, but how effective we are or are not as a community in ensuring that justice is meted out even in those neighborhoods where the scars of injustice still remain raw.