Jury Duty

Last week I went to the courthouse for my first tour of jury duty. After a long day, I was picked to be on the jury. They told us it could be all week because it was a murder trial. So everyday last week I was doing my civic duty and can I just say it was much much harder than I ever thought?!? Being a murder case, I knew it would be hard. But by Thursday when we gave our verdict I was emotionally and physically drained.

The deliberating took us almost all day so reaching a verdict was very hard. The hardest part was putting emotions aside and following the letter of the law. I know that our guilty verdict was the right decisions, but after it was read I got SUPER emotional and spent most of the night in tears or on the verge of tears! Poor Zach didn't really know much about what was going on because I was trying my best to not say too much.

This man convicted of murder, was, in my opinion acting in self defense due to prior attacks from the victim. But the night of the murder, the victim had not physically attacking which is where the letter of law says it is not self defense.

Friday, our last day, we were able to hear a bit more testimony and deliver the punishment. That is where many of us were able to feel better about our guilty verdict by, in our opinion, giving a punishment that fit the crime.

I think the hardest part of all of it all was for me to judge this man that I didn't even know. To think that one day the Lord will have to judge me and what I have done, knowing the pain that I felt in judging a stranger really hit me hard. Sometimes we make bad decisions but to think of the repercussions of our decisions on all of those who love us, even the Lord was really hard for me. I know I felt a little taste of how difficult it is for the Lord to punish us with all of the love that he has for us.

I am grateful to be able to feel of the love that the Lord has for me and for the defendant in the trial. I just hope that this man that I was forced to judge is able to know of the love that the Lord has for him despite everything tough that has happened in his life. The trial in general helped me to again see how truly blessed I am in so many aspects of my life.

Sorry to get all deep, but this jury duty experience was really a good one for me even though it was also very hard. I am glad that I had the chance. I just hope there aren't any little green cards in my mail box again anytime soon!!
On another note...we celebrated our one year anniversary this weekend with a much needed trip to the beach and day off! I will post pictures and details soon!!!