In the Summer of 1980, I was one of the jurors in a murder trial with so many twists and ironies that I was frankly astonished that no coverage or reporting on the case and its investigation appeared anywhere. Two men were charged with the murder, and they were tried together. Both were on trial for their lives because the death occurred supposedly in the commission of a crime. The very short and totally inadequate description of the homicide: 2 men wrestled for possession of a sawed off shotgun, the gun discharging in the struggle, killing one of them instantly. But there were so many lessons crowded into those 2 weeks in July, that there is a truly compelling story to be spun on any of a plethora of topics. Everything from the consequences of the company you keep to the snares involved with happening to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was the eye opening example of what might befall you if you find yourself in a courtroom with inadequate council, the blown police investigation, with all evidence destroyed through comically unforeseen circumstances. The final disposition was that we found one defendant guilty (the one with the clearly inexperienced young public defender). The second defendant was represented by a man so obnoxiously insufferable that we gladly would have convicted that lawyer on the spot. The second man was nevertheless acquitted and literally ran from the courtroom. But this was just the first phase of things. The second and more frightening aspect of this experience was in the 4 days of deliberations on whether or not to grace the convicted man with execution. THAT was a chilling lesson on the vagaries of human disposition that will be with me always.
I guess for me the lesson of that experience is that justice is in reality a truly malleable concept. I truly don’t know if the man I assume is still in prison deserves to be there or not. The road map given us by the judge pointed that way, but there is not one doubt in my mind that he would not have served a day beyond that trial had he the benefit of an experienced and skilled lawyer. As a result of this episode, I have scrupulously evaded my empanelment on any jury, though summoned scrupulously every other year to explain to a judge my distrust of the actual odds on the viability of a “fair” trial.