Behind It All

so while my internet was down, the state of new york saw fit to call me in for jury duty. yes indeedy, a bunch of letters had determined that i might be a peer, fit to judge others. and i was convinced to go by their threats of jail time and a fine if i didn't make an appearance. so i got a bottle of water and an orange and headed to the court house. my water and orange were confiscated - apparently jury duty is like flying (no liquids). at least i had a bunch of reading material.

i headed up the stairs and into a huge room. what a relief; i had been expecting a cramped closet feel. i must have been looking friendlier than i was feeling because people ignored the empty seats and came to sit next to me. at a little after 8:30 am, the man at the front of the room called the room to order and invited us to watch the "orientation video". were we about to watch how to judge a peer?

the film opened in a forest where a man tied to some wood posts was being half-dragged. i was thinking - did someone put the wrong tape in. nope. this is how they get is passionate about jury duty. a movie about the history of judging folk. narrated by ed bradley (who told them about my love for 60 minutes?) who tells us that it is now "YOUR TURN".

so i learnt that in 400BC aristotle came up with the idea of a jury which was then thrown out by the romans who favoured laws and judges. but then we got to medieval times and the concept of "trial by ordeal". flash back to the forest. popular trials by ordeal included thrusting a hand into boiling water: if the hand healed in 3 days, you were innocent. if not, well then the rest of you was bound to be thrown into boiling water. another trial by ordeal - throwing the accused into water. if you were innocent, you sunk. if you floated, you were guilty. finally a question that had been swirling aimlessly in my head was answered - wouldn't you be dead in both cases? turns out that after sinking for a while, folk were allowed to jump in and try to save their loved ones from the water. ordeal did not always mean death. thank goodness for juries, huh?

did you know that william penn founded pennsylvania? a tad egocentric, right? yeah, he also had something to do with trials by jury. the film was about a half hour long and apparently changed the minds of several characters who told us how they used to dread jury duty but were now changed and happy about serving. i am sure they didn't have to give up an orange and a bottle of water to do so.