From: kmj1000@cus.cam.ac.uk (K.M. Jeary)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.quaker
Subject: Re: Quakerism
Date: 23 Nov 92 17:35:06 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

I have read the articles on jury service with interest, especially since I am
English and I suspect that our system functions slightly differently, although
both experience, like all man-made systems, fallibility from time to time.

In my case, it was only necessary to affirm rather than swear - this is a
recognized right in English courts, and although it is to a certain extent
disruptive of procedure, it is accepted.

Secondly I think that my attitude towards courts is rather like some 
vegetarians towards meat-eaters - OK, so you eat meat. Then you ought to be
prepared to wring the neck of the chicken your'e currently eating.

I was in Leeds during the time of the Yorkshire Ripper. This name may not mean
much to Americans, but he was our first really major multiple murderer in many
years, and he caused a lot of grief including press exhortations to women not to
go out alone, or in some cases, go out at all after dark. That I was not prepared
to do. I would not and will not let my life be ruled by fear. The feelings I
had about this were compounded by the fact that a close friend of mine, acting
as an assistante in France before going to university, was extremely brutally
raped and murdered. The trial was a very unpleasant one, since the onus
in this type of case in France is to persuade the court of the defendant's
innocence ('guilty until proven innocent'), which in a rape trial of this sort
tends to mean by blackening the victim's name. I think that most people can fill
in the details.... My decision to carry on my life as normal was the only tribute
I could give Ariadne, and I recall telling my parents that if I were killed, at
least I had been doing what I wanted to do. I knew the risks I was taking.

What's the point of all this? Well, I *did and do* want that man locked away. It
turned out that he had raped before but that the victims were such a mess that
they could not face going to court. I know what Ari's murder cost her family -
years of psychotherapy for her two sisters, neither of whom will ever really
trust men again, her mother's nervous breakdown, my total inability to cope with
seeing her sister (the family want to keep in contact with me, because I and her
other friends are all they have left of her) because she reminds me so strongly
of Ari and I can't keep facing the pain... And this is over ten years ago.

I don't want revenge, but I do want containment. Until somebody devises better
therapies, therapies that will work, I don't want people like these wandering
the streets. I don't mean to imply that the system's perfect It's not, and it
might be getting worse. I know (and I can't go into details, for 
confidentiality reasons) that in at least two of the cases on which I sat as a
juror, the prosecution (in this country, the police) witnesses were lying in
their teeth. Oh, and so were the defendants.. It's remarkable how stupid 
lawyers seem to think juries are. But the people who were there with me took
their roles very seriously indeed, try vigorously to stand back from their own
prejudices. 

Perhaps if you can't agree with the system, then the way ahead is to work as
Friends always have for a more positive one eg for better prison conditions
like Elizabeth Fry or look at alternatives to prison...

It is always better to try to light a candle than curse the darkness...
Or something like that). 
-- 
Internet: K.Jeary@ucs.cam.ac.uk       University Computing Service,
JANET:    k.Jeary@uk.ac.cam.ucs       Computer Laboratory, Pembroke St,
                                      Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.