I got called for jury duty, right at the height of the holiday season. Ugh. It was mostly a lot of waiting. If this sounds exciting, it was not. Everything seemed to take a lot waiting and pausing. It drove me crazy.
The case was about child abuse, I was terrified. I'm too sensitive for that kind of thing. I can't even watch SVU. It sounded like they wanted to put a mom in prison/probation/take away her kids or something for neglect. O.M.G. She didn't look much older than me. Mid-late 20s. She never said a word. Her hair was a mess. Her eyes looked lost or tired, like she didn't even care anymore about this whole thing.
They asked a few questions to everyone, and every few questions, they dismissed a handful of people. Do you think a mother can be criminally abusive by leaving her kids? Do you know anyone in this case? Would you send a mother to prison? Would you send a pregnant woman to prison? So on.
The question I got dismissed on was "Do you think a mother is a bad mother if she has children with 4 different men?" I said YES. Most people said yes, actually.
So, I was done at 2PM. I did the last of my Christmas shopping, and I made it back to work at 4:30. Not bad.
The whole day I was thinking of my snap judgment. I was trying to think of a situation where a responsible woman would have kids with 4 different men. In the US today, I can't think of one, especially so young. Is she a bad mother? Probably. It's like the judgment is already made in my head, and I can't think of any reasonable explanation. Oh well, if my snap judgment got me out of jury duty....
That situation must be awful to even end up in court at all. I feel so bad for those kids. Their lives must be very rough. Sad.
Monday, December 15, 2008
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3 comments:
That's so incredibly sad.
Those poor kids. They're the only ones that lose in all of this :(
If it makes you feel better, I thought your judgment was what I would've said. I don't think a responsible woman CAN have 4 different kids from 4 different men (none adopted of course)... I really can't think of any situation. 2 maybe. Even 3, if we're pushing it, but 4 .. wow.
You were honest about your reaction the question, which is what matters when they're doing jury selection. The point of the jury selection system is to throw out people who have potential biases...not to judge whether it's reasonable or fair to have those biases.
I'd think the same thing. 4 different men? Maybe 4 kids although by that point I'd tell the lady she needs to consider if she can even care for that many children.
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