I was interested to read William Glasse’s TFTD a few weeks back on the verses from Micah 6:8 “what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
William’s thoughts took me back to the time I spent in court – my first time on jury service.
I’ve had the experience of attending the Magistrate’s Court as a professional witness on a couple of occasions, and had seen the inside of Crown Court from films on the TV, so had some idea of what to expect. However, what I hadn’t expected was all the sitting around beforehand, and the process of selecting a jury of 12 people from an initial group of around 26 people. We were told what the case was that we would be sitting in and some people were excluded because of knowledge of the area or witnesses, others were excluded for various other reasons. Then names were chosen at random.
It seemed quite interesting and exciting to start with and the process was explained clearly by the judge as we went along.
However, I was suddenly acutely aware of the seriousness and responsibility laying on each of our shoulders.
I had in the back of my mind all the time, that verse from Micah – act justly, love mercy and walk humbly.
Here I was with 11 other people from all different walks of life and experience deciding the fate of another person. There were of course other people involved in the case, the victim and his family and friends, as well as other people in the locality of the alleged crime.
We spent several weeks listening to evidence from both sides, prosecution and defence, and then we were “locked” in a room together to weigh up the evidence and come to a verdict.
This was the most difficult time. We had heard privileged information that was not in the public domain, we each had our own life experiences that might influence our emotional response to what we had heard, but the judge made it very clear that we must take emotion out and simply come to a decision based on the evidence we had heard and nothing else.
Had the prosecuting barrister proved beyond reasonable doubt guilt?
Again the words of Micah. Here I was having heard evidence for and against, seeing and hearing the words of the defendant and the victim. How to act justly? How to love mercy? Was it my role to be merciful here?
What I felt during the whole process, bearing in mind those words of Micah, was that we all had to hear the evidence, to weigh it up, to reflect and discuss it together in all seriousness, respecting every other member of the jury.
In knew that I had God with me. He is the ultimate judge of us all. As difficult as it was, having my faith helped me to act justly, love mercy and hopefully walk humbly with Him through the whole process.