Thursday, October 22, 2009

Jury Duty Ends

Jury duty finally ended yesterday. It was a learning experience, though I'm not in any rush to go through it again. I found it to be very stressful, and I had trouble sleeping. It's not easy knowing the fate of a person lies in a decision made by 6 people who are hearing arguments on both sides but who don't know this person, his thoughts and dreams, his likes, his fears, anything.

The young man being tried for armed robbery was only 20 years old. Born the same year as my own daughter. According to the detective, he called her to give a sworn statement confessing to the crime. She even said he seemed remorseful. I watched the young man, and he never seemed cocky. Instead he kept his head down much of the time and seemed embarrassed at being there. I felt moved in my heart to pray for this young man. Interestingly, I was not the only one of the jury members to say they felt a burden to pray for him. I really believe we were all praying for him.

He was found guilty. I'm praying the Lord would send someone to speak with him in prison. I don't know what prison he's in, but God knows. At 20 years old, he has plenty of time to straighten out his life, repent of his sins and turn to Jesus, who can and will forgive him and wipe his slate clean. I'm hoping and praying he knows this.

2 comments:

Kristi said...

Wow. I'm thankful that some of you really took this to heart, instead of just to justice. There are some really good rehabilitation programs in a lot of our prisons. My husband used to volunteer for one. I think there are more Christ based programs in prisons than there are, out of prison.

Mrs. O said...

Unfortunately, as the saying goes, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Although I agree everyone needs a second chance, they also need to realize there are consequences for each action - good or bad. I hope the prison he was sent to does have rehab ... here in NYC, the rehab seems to be available only for those who have money; the rest are basically forgotten. It's sad.