The Juror Read online

  The Juror

  Chapter 1

  Thirty-three-year-old Kathy Mae Poland was on trial as a co-defendant for the aggravated assault of Barbara Livingston. As I listened to the closing arguments of the prosecutor, I could not help but look at the woman who was facing up to twenty-five years in prison for her role in the assault. She was terrified of going to prison for a crime she probably did not commit. I felt bad for her, but my first duty was to the truth and not to my personal convictions.

  The prosecutor was doing a poor job at convincing me that Miss Poland was guilty of this crime. We spent almost two weeks listening to arguments from both sides, and it ended with more evidence to suggest that Miss Poland was not responsible in any way for what happened to Mrs. Livingston. The man on trial for carrying out the attack was Joshua Chamberlain who had taken the stand in his own defense and said he had never met Miss Poland before.

  The prosecutor was having a hard time tying Miss Poland to the crime, and the one piece of evidence they were banking on was a gum wrapper found at the scene of the attack with her fingerprint on it. Miss Poland did not take the stand in her defense, therefore, she could not be questioned about how it got there, however, her lawyer argued that anyone could have gone through her garbage or it was picked up and transferred to more than one location before getting there.

  He argued that she did not know the victim nor Mrs. Livingston, and there was no evidence linking them. Miss Poland had the best defense lawyers because she had the money to do so. From the information gathered, Miss Poland was the daughter of hotel tycoon, William Poland, and world-renowned fashion designer, Meliefa Poland. Her parents were in the courtroom and they seemed confident in their daughter’s innocence, however, Miss Poland was visibly nervous about the possible outcome.

  She was right to feel uncertainty even if she was innocent because her fate rested in the hands of the jurors, and anything can happen during deliberation. The jurors could use the fact that her prints were found at the scene of the crime and that was enough to convict her. Her family clearly thought otherwise and was expecting her to be acquitted based on the evidence, and the fact that, in their eyes, she was innocent.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, what happened to Mrs. Livingston, was brutal and egregious. We can all agree to that. However, while punitive action must be taken against the person responsible for this crime, punitive actions cannot, and must not, be taken against the wrong person. It is not just, nor is it equitable, that we ask Miss Poland to pay for the crime that someone else committed. My client had absolutely no idea who Mrs. Livingston was before she was placed in handcuffs and charged for her assault. My client also has no connection to the man charged with carrying out this attack, and he testified under oath that he has never met Miss Poland before."

  "Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot allow the inefficiencies of the prosecutor's office, to track down the perpetrator or perpetrators and bring them to justice, resulting in the wrong person going to prison. They could not be bothered to look beyond my client to find those responsible, instead, they decided to be lazy and stopped at a gum wrapper that could have gotten to the scenes by countless means."

  "Ladies and gentlemen, you should only find my client guilty if you are one hundred percent certain that this gum wrapper that the prosecution has brought into evidence could not have gotten there any other way than by my client. If you are going to send my client to prison for twenty-five years, then be certain that the only evidence, with no motive, that the prosecution is trying to sell us, has shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that Miss Poland is responsible in any way for this crime…"

  Listening to the closing argument of the defense had convinced me further that Miss Poland was innocent of aggravated assault, however, it was also important to hear the sides of my fellow jurors so that we can all come to a final and accurate decision.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Livingston was viciously attacked by Miss Poland and Mr. Chamberlain. The facts we have presented proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that they are responsible for the pain and suffering Mrs. Livingston has endured. The defense would like for you to overlook the gum wrapper that was found at the scene of the crime with both Miss Poland’s and Mr. Chamberlain’s fingerprint. Ask yourself: ‘what were they doing there?’ I will assure you that you will arrive at no other answer than to carry out this brutal attack on this innocent woman…”

  I looked at Miss Poland, and this time, she hung her head as if she had given up on any chance that she would be acquitted. A few times, I caught her looking toward us, and at times, swore she was looking directly at me. It was heartbreaking to see her face so gripped with sorrow for her role in the crime, or the fact that she was sitting there being wrongly accused. Each time we made eye contact, she would hang her head in shame, but that did not stop her from looking, or me from noticing.

  As the days went by, my sadness for her had deepened and I had to continually remind myself that I was not in court to form a bond with the accused. I was also not oblivious to Mrs. Livingston’s ordeal and the fact that she continued to suffer from this merciless act. I just hoped that Miss Poland was not the one responsible, and she could finally breathe. The real attacker had to be out there. This beautiful brunette with the big sad eyes could not possibly be guilty of such an act. There had to be a mistake.

  I decided to pay full attention to the prosecutor’s closing argument, and while it did not do much to show that Miss Poland was guilty, it had areas of great concern. At the end of the argument, the judge implored us to look at the facts and return with a verdict, so that we could go back to our lives and not spend more time than was necessary. I looked at Miss Poland one last time and she looked back at me, this time, not looking away. She knew there was nothing left, and her life was in our hands. I wished she had thought twice before getting involved in this plot, if she really did.

  It was heartbreaking to hear how many of my fellow jurors thought she was guilty when we sat down to discuss the case. I had really hoped that the evidence would have shown that she couldn’t possibly have anything to do with this crime. I was not sure what conclusion to come to at the moment because I had not yet gone through all the details before me. However, I was hoping that only one or two of us thought she was guilty, and hopefully, the lack of significant evidence on the part of the prosecutor would turn their verdict around.

  “She doesn’t have a solid alibi. She said she was home sleeping during the time of the attack so she had nothing to do with it, but that does not prove that she wasn’t an accessory,” one of the jurors said.

  “But it does not prove that she was either,” another said.

  “Guys, her fingerprint, along with Mr. Chamberlain’s, was on an item at the scene of the attack. Isn’t that odd? How did both their fingerprints end up on the same item?”

  “But how do we know that he carried out the attack? The surveillance video showed someone looking like him but there was no facial recognition…”

  “His friend’s car was seen leaving the scene.”

  “The license plate was not visible.”

  “But he was stopped and arrested.”

  “Because the police stopped a car fitting the description of the one leaving the scene. There is no guarantee that the police stopped the right car.”

  “If they stopped a car fitting the description of the one leaving the scene, and the driver of that car left a fingerprint at the scene of the crime, then he is fucking guilty!”

  “Calm down,” said the foreman. “We are not going to let this get out of control. We can all talk this through without getting upset. Take some time to go over all the evidence, eat, shower, and we will meet again tomorrow at eight.”

  I had yet to offer an opinion. I left the group and re
turned to my hotel room with all the different opinions stuck in my head. I wanted to get the views of everyone and used that along with the evidence to arrive at a verdict that I felt was fair to Miss Poland, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mrs. Livingston. The prosecution had decided to charge and try both Miss Poland and Mr. Chamberlain together because Mr. Chamberlain had to be guilty for Miss Poland to become an accessory. The defense didn’t need much. They just needed a shadow of a doubt, while the prosecution needed more than the one piece of gum paper they were depending on to send these two people to prison.

  I was a lot more concerned about what would happen to Miss Poland than I was about Mr. Chamberlain. There was just something about her that made my heart reach out to her and had overwhelming sympathy for her. I would hate for her to go to prison, but I had a responsibility to follow the law, and if it falls on her, then there was nothing I could do but have regrets that she did not choose a better path in life. Mrs. Livingston should get justice, and if Miss Poland was responsible, then I would not hesitate to find her guilty. I hoped it did not come to that.

  I missed my family and my friends. I never usually find the time for them, and they usually got on my nerves, but being in confinement made me miss even the things and people that annoyed me. It made me think about Miss Poland and how she would cope in prison and away from her normal life. She was from a wealthy family, but that did not matter when it couldn't protect her from the law.

  I chose to give up on most of my sleep, going over the evidence in my head. I wondered if other jurors were as consumed with this case as I was. They had to be. It had to be normal for anyone with a drop of empathy. I would hate to know that any of us were capable of sending someone to prison for such a long time if they are not guilty of the crime.

  I tossed and turned all night as my dreams were consumed with images of Miss Poland being carried out of the courtroom in handcuffs. My head throbbed as I crawled out of bed and needed to take something right away. I wished I had my phone to speak to my mother because I desperately needed to hear her voice. It was a voice that was always reprimanding me about a range of topics, from not eating enough home-cooked meals to being very poor at choosing quality friends or partners. I personally thought it was nonsense, but as I held the fate of two people in my hands, I started to have doubts about my abilities and hoped that my mother was wrong.

  My relationships have really been disastrous, but they were not my fault, and I refused to take the blame for other people being assholes. Sometimes I really should have noticed the signs earlier, but once I did, I had no problems walking away. I was running out of patience though, so I decided to take a break from it all. My friends had one blind date planned after another, but I was not interested. I was thirty-one years old and should be thinking seriously about stability in my personal life, but I had an issue with trust. This issue was as a result of the fact that every relationship I ended was for the same reason. People could not be trusted anymore and that realization was making it difficult for me to bring someone new into my life.

  I brushed my teeth and made a cup of coffee as I waited for breakfast to be delivered. Today was a big day, and we should have an idea of where the verdict was heading. I expected it to be better than the fifty-fifty position we left it the day before. I was unsure of which side of the verdict most people would be leaning toward. I was leaning toward a not guilty verdict because the gum wrapper alone was not enough to convince me that they were the ones who carried out the crime.

  I hurried with breakfast because I did not want to be late; however, the foreman had no such concerns as he strolled in ten minutes after the convening was scheduled to begin. He greeted everyone and got right down to business, disrupting the mini panel that had gathered to one side of the room to discuss the guilty verdict they had in mind.

  "If we could be professional and smart about this, people, we could be out of here and get back to our sorry little lives by tomorrow. We can all agree that this is not where we want to be right now. I trust that you are rested and ready to arrive at a unanimous verdict and not plan to be an oppositional asshole just to fuck with the rest of us. This is serious. We need to aim at getting justice for Mrs. Livingston without sending the wrong people to prison," Geoffrey, the lead juror, said.

  I was hopeful when everyone agreed to be fair and felt confident in my fellow jurors’ ability to get to a fair outcome. I was grossly disappointed when half an hour in, the majority was leaning toward a guilty verdict, and they had nothing to substantiate the increase. I wondered if I was not opened enough to the arguments because I was too empathetic toward Miss Poland. Her big sad eyes were haunting me, and it made me spend less time on Mr. Chamberlain and whether or not he could have committed the crime. Maybe because I knew that if Mr. Chamberlain was guilty, then there was a high chance that Miss Poland would go down with him. I decided to do the right thing and focus on him.

  "He was placed in the area where Mrs. Livingston was attacked!"

  "When is that a crime?"

  "He was not placed there. A car, like the one he was driving, was placed in the area."

  "That, with gum wrapper...I say he's guilty."

  "The prosecution has not even provided a motive. It was not robbery because the perpetrator did not take anything."

  "That's because Miss Poland sent him to attack her…"

  "Why?" Geoffrey asked, and everyone was silent.

  The silence was short-lived.

  "Mrs. Livingston was brutally attacked. So much that the prosecution initially charged Mr. Chamberlain with attempted murder…”

  “Which they changed because they did not have enough evidence.”

  “...she was left for dead, and by some miracle, she has survived and has a long recovery ahead of her. In the remote area where there were no cameras to show what really happened, a gum wrapper was found with the fingerprints of both Miss Poland and Mr. Chamberlain. What was Mr. Chamberlain doing in that remote part of the area to have dropped a gum wrapper? It was to attack Mrs. Livingston."

  "She was unable to identify Mr. Chamberlain as her attacker."

  "Because she was too busy being battered!"

  "Alright! Let's have a vote," Geoffrey said. "And the question we are asking is whether or not Mr. Chamberlain should go to prison possibly for twenty-five years for the assault of Mrs. Livingston. We will start with him, and if we arrive at a guilty verdict, we look at Miss Poland. Remember...without a shadow of a doubt."

  Everyone seemed to be focused and taking this vote seriously, and I decided to focus on my verdict instead of having palpitations about the possibility of a guilty verdict. I had to ask myself this very important question. Did I believe that Mr. Chamberlain attacked Mrs. Livingston? A part of me believed that he did, but I had doubts, so based on that and not about me not wanting Miss Poland to go to prison, I arrived at a not guilty verdict. I held my breath as the verdicts were tallied.

  "Eleven guilty and one not guilty. So close!" Geoffrey shouted, hitting her hand on the desk. "Who the fuck is this?"

  And for the first time, I spoke.

  "That would be me," I said, standing up. Everyone was silent because they were hearing my voice for the first time. They probably didn't even notice that I was here.

  "Would you like to share with us how you arrived at a not guilty verdict so we can help you change your mind?" Geoffrey said softly, as if I was the crazy one in the room and he had to be gentle with me.

  "Are we going to send two people to prison on a hypothetical? The prosecution has failed to present evidence convincing enough for us to arrive at the verdict they want. It is not our responsibility to do their job. They have not presented a fiber, a scratch on Mr. Chamberlain from the attack, a blood splatter, any weapon used because he couldn't have done that with his fist without leaving bruises on his knuckles. They are using a gum wrapper that anyone could have thrown out the window...that they could have picked up anywhere. I’m sure I have a gum wrapper in the bin in my hotel room
that the housekeeper could touch then it ended up somewhere where a crime is committed. I wouldn't want to go to jail for that crime," I said and everyone hung their head. "If the prosecution wanted a guilty verdict, then they should have put the time, effort, and resources into proving it to us. They haven't. And I am not sending two people to prison for their incompetence."

  I retook my seat. There was a moment of silence as they looked at one another.

  "Should we go again?" Geoffrey asked, and everyone nodded.

  I felt the burden lifted off my heart, and I almost celebrated for Miss Poland. I could already feel her relief and the joy at knowing she would not be sent to prison for a crime she did not commit. I believed wholeheartedly in my decision that there was not enough evidence to find her and Mr. Chamberlain guilty. I felt good that I had single-handedly brought the deliberation to an end and we would all get to see our families and return to our normal lives. I was happy for Miss Poland, however, there was a sadness that was dampening my joy, and it was the fact that Mrs. Livingston's attackers were out there and she did not get justice. But justice was not about the innocent taking the fall, therefore, it was on law enforcement to get the person or people responsible for the crime.

  The vote was unanimous, so Geoffrey sent a message to the judge to inform him that we had arrived at a verdict. It would be a while to get everyone in the courtroom for the reading, so we were encouraged to have lunch and freshen up before we were called. Everyone was excited for this duty to be over because it was very difficult to be locked away from the world with no electronic devices to distract us from the emotions and loneliness that accompanied jury duty.

  Suddenly, everyone saw me. They were smiling and talking with me, grateful that I was able to bring this ordeal to a close. There was this feeling of excitement and anxiousness inside me to see Miss Poland’s reaction when she realized she was free. I laughed with everyone, but they had no idea that most of my happiness was coming from the fact that I was happy for the woman who was about to learn that she was not going to prison.