I want to do it. I'm afraid I can't do it and that trying to do it will result in hurt. That's the gist of it.
Just the other day,
I was thinking about whether I would ever get the chance to serve on a
jury. I think it was when I overheard
the little old ladies at the therapy pool talking about their experiences over
the years. The first two times I was
called up, I had to pass because I was in another state or another country, I
think. That was when I was young and
politically active and enthusiastic and full of patriotism and uprightness and
duty.
A friend and I were
discussing an important jury trial in the news recently, and I wondered if I
would be able to serve on a jury.
Definitely not on a capital case because I do not believe I would be
able to convict someone unto death. But
on something else? After the baffling
verdict, I read that the jury repeatedly asked for transcripts of certain
testimony, and the judge denied their requests.
Baffled, I researched and read elsewhere that's common, that judges
don't want to give people transcripts of some and not all and many judges don't
want to give any transcripts. They are
more likely to approve requests for video so that all nuances are present. Jurors are required to rely on their memories
of the lawyers' arguments, witness testimony, laws, and information.
I don't think I can
do that.
My memory is better
now than it was back when things were Very Bad, after I got hurt working for
the government, and it turned into a chronic minor disability which robbed me
of sleep and increased my overall pain until my health was getting worse and worse,
and I could not have served if I were summoned, though at least I would have
been making more on jury duty than I did working full time in a retail underworld while trying to get a
master's degree to make myself employable despite my disability.
Today I got the
summons.
Now that my health
is on a general upward trend and not a downward spiral, I thought that I had
relaxed somewhat, that I had mellowed with age and increased experience . That I would not be overly serious about jury
duty like I was about driving passengers in a car when I first got my license
("Their LIVES were in MY shaking and inexperienced hands!). That I was not so patriotic and bound to my
duty after my country treated me badly after I got injured in its service and
left to the charity of family to prevent bankruptcy because there was no more
money left for the government assistance I did quality for. That I would not panic and over-think things.
I was wrong.
I have known about being called for a little
over an hour, and I am overwhelmed. I
find that I still desperately want to serve and do this duty diligently and
with care, but if those are the rules, I cannot in good conscience do so. If I am supposed to remember every detail and
every nuance of testimony, if I HAVE to, if someone's freedom depends on my
ability to understand and recall, and I can't do that reliably because of all
the years of chronic pain, bad sleep, and further injuries, is it right for me
to check No in box 5 where they ask if I have a disability that would affect my
ability to serve just because I want to, and just because it's only a small
disability?
Am I still prone to
over-seriously over-thinking everything?
Well, at least some
things. Clearly this is one of those
things. I have a lot of questions I will
be asking shortly. Can jurors stand up during
a trial and move around to prevent their bodies from stiffening and causing
distracting agony? Can I take notes with
my voice recognition software? (That's
probably a terrible idea, considering what it does to mangle anything I say
when I use it for writing that contains any emotion at all.) Can I get transcripts of everything since I
can't rely on my memory (especially not for something this important)? The information says most trials last 3-5
days. If it was a really simple trial
and only a day, maybe I could keep it together, but 3 days of things to remember?
I think I need a
towel.
I could just try to
calm myself down by pointing out that in all likelihood, I wouldn't even be
called. And if I am, I don't think there
are any high profile cases coming up, and if there are, they'd disqualify me in
a heartbeat if the stress made me somewhat incoherent. So I should clearly not check Yes.
The problem is that
incoherent me is just fine for most people.
They wouldn't even notice or know I wasn't functioning at full tilt or
what I was worried about because I can't articulate well on the spot under
stress on account of the not-sleeping from the pain and whatnot. So I might get called up and be TERRIBLE at
it, and some poor schmuck could get convicted for something because I can't
articulate my point of view and reasons to convince people on the spot. So I should clearly not check No and wait for
the embarrassing process of proving I'm a bad choice and the guilt that would
come from knowing they think I'm a bad citizen for "trying to get out of
jury duty" when I'm really not!
But what if my
slightly-incoherent reasoning and my stubbornness was the only thing saving
some poor schmuck from a terrible fate?
And I wasn't there, and so that terrible fate happened? So clearly I should not check Yes.
And I should
definitely never start a land war in Asia.
(And it's unworthy to even be concerned that this will be during rehearsals for a performance. Or that the training I have to create and finally just scheduled for the whole department is during this time. Or that it might be right over an important project deadline. Because life and work conflicts are true for everyone, and many people have more of those than I do and still serve on juries because it's part of the territory of being a good citizen.)
Just because I'm not at full capacity doesn't mean it's impossible for me to serve, does it? Does it?
Sigh.
Thoughts?
Posts
