Serving Jury Duty: Nadine Shares Her Story!

During the mock trial, I served in the jury. The role of the jury is to listen to the evidence that the prosecution and defense bring to our attention during the trial, and eventually come to a verdict deciding whether the defendant is innocent or guilty. I found the role boring at first because it is a lot of listening to details. I found that every time the prosecution or defense had a turn to speak, I felt swayed back and forth to either side of the argument. It was an interesting internal ethical experience for me. Eventually when we got to the lunch break I sort of thought about the evidence thus far and I was able thinking about my impending decision.

The biggest thing that I have taken out of this experience is the amount of responsibility. As a member of a jury you are literally impacting the fate of someone’s entire life! WOW! To me, this is an insane responsibility, even more so than that of a judge or lawyer!

Submitted by Mid-State Technical College Student, Nadine