Trial by judge and a jury of your peers...

Most countries have an active legal process of some sort involving courts, judges, lawyers, barristers, magistrates and jury’s etc. The Australian legal system is based on the British system, which is not surprising considering the country is a former British colony and member of the Commonwealth. Some say our system is flawed and I suppose I am also of that opinion; The sentences given for some crimes don’t seem to balance against those given to others. I won’t go into it in this post however a quick scan on the interwebs will reveal the disparity in sentencing in this country, and probably others also. We don’t hear much on the topic of capital punishment (death sentence) or corporal punishment (physical punishment) these days however one could argue that it may be an effective deterrent. Forced your way into someone’s house and brutalised them? No worries cobber, 100 lashes with the cat-o-nine-tails. Anyway…

This little black duck is going to get a close and personal look into the Australian legal process at some stage this year as I received a summons a week ago for Jury Service. For those who may not know what a jury is, it’s a panel of people, [usually 12] sworn in to deliberate facts presented to them by the court with the task of reaching an [impartial] verdict, typically of guilty or not guilty.

The summons arrived in an official looking envelope from the Sherriff’s Office and as I’ve never been summonsed before I had no idea what it was. On opening the envelope I read the word Summons together with Jury Service and pretty much said, ”fuck it!” On further reading it states that I have to attend, [non-negotiable] an orientation day and from there I will be at their disposal for a month at least, maybe more, and I could be a part of the jury on any case at all. Since receiving the letter I have spoken with the department and made them aware that I will be away overseas for the month I have been summonsed for and have gone through the process of deferring it until later in the year. There’s no getting out of it. Just in case you're wondering, the selection process works by randomly selecting people from the electoral roll, like a lottery I guess, and some people have been called-up a couple of times in their life.

Just a word on getting out of it, there are grounds for doing so however it is unlikely I will be able to provide enough compelling evidence to avoid jury service. Financial hardship, insufficient command of the english language, medical grounds, religious beliefs, mental illness and certain work scenarios (like being a police officer) can get a person out of jury service however it’s unlikely I would be able to use any of these reasons. One of my mates reckon I’m just about "as crazy as they get", but that’s his opinion only, and he’s bloody crazy too so it doesn’t count! :)

One of my friends was on a jury a few years ago and so I spoke to him about it last week. He was on a murder case where a prostitute had her throat cut in a hotel room by a guy. She died and he got caught; My mate told me he saw images he will never forget in his weeks on the jury. He also gave me an insight into how it all works, the selection process and overall jury process. It didn’t help, I still don’t want to do it.

I’m a little concerned about the case I may be on. I mean we live in a pretty messed up world and people can do some very disgusting and violent things to one another and of course sometimes children are involved. Also, I would be a little concerned about being on the jury for a case involving high emotion or organised crime as well. The correspondence suggests jurors wear nothing that could define them or stand them out in a crowd and what the hell does THAT mean? I’m concerned I could be identified and targeted. I’m not a very remarkable fellow but having said that, as steemit’s 987th most handsome user, I could be distinguished through having such an average and unremarkable appearance!

Anyway, there’s not much I can do about the situation I guess. The Sheriff’s Office have accepted my deferral and I will be re-summonsed later in the year with a date and time I must front up at their office for my orientation into jury service. I believe the prosecuting and defense lawyers will have the right to a process of elimination between the pool of potential jurors where they can eliminate people they feel may not assist their case so maybe I’ll be eliminated. I don’t know how that process works, only that they have a few opportunities to eliminate people and that’s about it. (I am not 100 percent certain about this however that's the way I understand it). A defence lawyer may eliminate someone they feel may be strongly opposed to their defendant and the prosecution may argue to keep that person on the jury. Makes sense I guess.

So, later in the year I’ll go through the process and hopefully don’t get selected. If I do I doubt I’ll be able to write about it in any substance however may be able to do a small piece about the selection process. I certainly won’t write about the case of course. In the meantime I'm going to try to forget the english language and start speaking umm, I don't know, Klingon maybe...Might get me out of it. (Not really...)

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