|
 Newspaper Photo by Tim Cuff
The concept of being judged by twelve ordinary citizens is at the heart of our judicial system. Jurors never reveal the reasons for their decisions. They leave that to the many people who have not sat through often much more than a week of legal debate.
Perhaps Joshua Teal or the writer of the Herald editorial insulting juries would prefer to be judged by either the media or corrupt lawyers, but my preference would be for an unbiased jury.
I have served on a number of juries, and acted as chairperson. These people take their role very seriously and debate can be very intense indeed.
In my experience the media, and the idle opinionated, have been very wide of the mark in their attempts to comprehend what went on behind closed doors, and even more so in saying what they think should have gone on.
We should all give thanks to those people who generously give their time to serve on juries. Without them we would wallow in injustice.
Tony Watkins, Karaka Bay
Published in "The New Zealand Herald" 23 March 2010
|
