ME and Ophelia

PAULY BLOGS HIS JURY DUTY IN NEW YORK CITY
NYT sad story "Sentenced to Be Raped"

Heh. Dead man walking. Brilliant. Another great post by Pauly recounting his jury duty in New York City. I had no idea jurors were asked so many questions. Amazed Pauly had to speak and shocked he had to identify himself in front of the others and two suspected murderers.

For some reason, I thought the identities of jurors were kept under wraps, that jurors were selected on paper and told to turn up, stay anonymous and talk only in a separate room with fellow jurors or at set times to ask questions. I mean, what if the accused takes a dislinke to some jurors and comes looking for them at a later date. I'm surprised jurors in NYC don't all turn up wearing wigs, hats and dark glasses.

Things may be different here in England. I don't watch enough TV dramas to know. Pauly's experience sounds grim. Not sure I could bear sitting in judgement of another person. I'd probably be up half the night, every night making copious notes and painstakingly going over every detail to ensure my view was not prejudiced, emotional, etc.

Seems jurors should be anonymous, even amongst the other jurors, and sit behind a one-way glass so the accused can't look into your eyes, check out body language, remember your face.

Imagine being on a jury where all the jurors believe the accused is guilty, but you are convinced the accused is innocent. And because you can't get the jurors to see your point of view, the accused is sent down for life or put to death. It could give you sleepless nights and affect the rest of your life. Thank goodness I've never been called, I'm sure I'd end up causing someone a problem.
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NYT story "Sentenced to Be Raped"

Pauly, points to a sad story in the New York Times "Sentenced to Be Raped", and writes:

"A very powerful op/ed piece in the NY Times about a woman who was sentenced to be gang raped in Pakistan (for something related to her brother, not her) and, rather than follow the Pakistani tradition of killing herself afterwards, testified against the men, had them prosecuted and used compensation given to her by the Pakistani government to start two different schools. Naturally, the Pakistani government is now apparently going back on promises to fund the schools."