Saturday, November 21, 2009

Jury Duty

I spent 3 days of last week on jury duty. A fascinating, disturbing, very worthwhile experience.

The case was 1st degree rape of a child. A father was accused of raping his 6 year old daughter. The daughter testified, and was very believable. She has told the same story multiple times for the past year. There was no real evidence other than the testimonies of the father and the daughter. So we basically had to decide who was more believable, the father or the daughter. We sided with the daughter. So this guy is going to prison for a long time, quite possibly for the rest of his life.

I've had trouble getting this out of my mind since then. I think we did the right thing. But what if we were wrong???? I have to keep reminding myself that I truly have no "reasonable doubt".

The father and mother had split a year before the incident, and there was a restraining order against the father for part of that time, where he could only see his kids if another adult was present. But during the trial, we were not allowed to know why. Afterwards, we learned that it was because he had been physically abusive to his wife.

The daughter had been acting out a lot at school, and the acting out only started after that restraining order was lifted. So ...?

The 6 year old child was able to describe details about her father's anatomy that a 6 year old would not normally know.

The 6 year old told her mom about the incident the morning after it happened, and they were at the police station by 11am that morning.

The defense was, well, there basically was no defense. No character witnesses, no friends testifying for the guy. The only one who testified for him was his mother, and she was really not believable. Grasping at straws, the defense's main tactic was to try to make us believe that the daughter had made this story up after hearing her mom talk about being abused when SHE was a child. The mom was abused as a child but flatly denied that she had ever talked about it within her daughter's hearing, and there certainly was no evidence to that effect.

We did the right thing. We did the right thing. I keep seeing the defendent's face, and thinking about him being in jail now.

The jury selection process took an entire day. Because of the nature of this case, there were 60 people in the jury pool to insure getting 12 jurors. About 1/2 were excused "for cause", mostly because of personal experiences with sexual abuse and/or admitting that they didn't believe they could be fair and impartial in such a case. One guy was excused because he said he believes 99% of the accused are guilty and he doesn't see why we don't just take 'em out and shoot 'em. Another because he said the only evidence he would accept in such a case is lie detector tests for father and daughter.

An interesing experience. But one I do not wish to repeat any time soon.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

I love this time of year! Oh, I know in a month or two my tune will change, but for now...
I love the rain, and the fact that I can no longer remember the last dry day.
I love the colors: every imaginable shade of gold and sepia.
I love driving home at night through dark, winding roads littered with leaves.
I love sitting in front of the fire with a cat curled up in my lap, listening to the rain on the roof.
I love laying in bed listening to the rain and wind.

I've been inspired to start quilting again, for the first time in a couple of years. Have finished up a couple left from my last burst of inspiration, completed one new top and a couple of pillows with the leftover scraps. When I get more ambitious, I'll post pictures.