My Longkang

Guest writer- Jeff-N-Perth

The summons

I received my summons in the mail to attend Perth Central Law Courts for jury duty. It is
compulsory for those who are selected unless you have good reason not to. I was very excited about becoming “Juror Jeff”.

I prepared myself mentally for making big decisions, the first one of course was…. what clothes to wear. Not all countries in the world use the jury system. I recall one of Australia’s nearest neighbors, Indonesia, does not use jury but instead uses a panel of judges system. Recent famous cases such as the “Bali bomber”, “Bali 9″ and Schapelle Corby were all tried in Indonesian courts without a jury.

It should also be pointed out that the jury is only used in serious criminal cases, such as murder, assault, sexual assault, armed robbery, treason etc.

Jury selection

Upon entering the jury assembly room I was given my “lucky number” – number 938. There were around 400 people sitting there who had also been received summons this week for jury duty. I found my way to the rear of the room, seating was in short supply… spotted a free chair, sat down and looked around at the other potential jurors… and they looked at me.

There was a wide selection of Perth people around me: men, women, old, young and middle age. I also noted a good amount of non European descent Australians such as people of Asian, Indian and African origin which was pleasing to see. I noticed the “cute girls”, and my mind began to wonder… “number 938…….. NUMBER 938!!!”

I resisted the urge to shout out “BINGO!” and proceeded to the front of the room, my number was up and I had just been selected to be on the jury of a sexual assault case running over the next 5 days.

Court proceedings

The charges were read out to the accused…. he pleaded NOT GUILTY and the panel of twelve jurors accepted the challenge of determining the verdict for this 34yo man on nine charges of sexual penetration without consent.

I looked at the accused straight in the eye from across the room and he looked back at me. Over the next two days the court and jury heard testimony from the victim, many of the details were very distressing as there were photos of bruising and even a video on a mobile phone, which would later turn out to be damning evidence against the accused.

The victim was clearly devastated under examination, cross examination and re-examination, she had to relive the experience again for court. After the victim gave her testimony, the prosecutor called on many witnesses, from the doctor who did the initial examination, three police officers and friends of the victim. The defense counsel also called witnesses, friends of the accused and also another doctor to challenge the evidence given by the first doctor called by the prosecution.

My personal feelings

The jury was given many breaks to retire to the jury room to digest information presented and at times I felt overwhelmed by the shear volume of evidence presented…. my head felt like it was going to explode, thankfully having eleven fellow jurors greatly assisted in recalling what was said. We often discussed the mannerism and quirks of both the prosecutor and defense lawyer.

The last day

Finally, the last day of the trial came, both the prosecutor and defense counsel summed up their cases with a closing speech. The prosecutor’s was short and sweet, straight to the point whilst the defense lawyer took nearly one hour, in which he made some excellent and quite valid points. I really did admire the defense lawyers skill and professionalism is this case… even when there was some compelling evidence going against the accused.

The judge then gave us advice on how to make our decision in respect to the law, the key phrase being beyond reasonable doubt. We retired to the jury room to consider our verdict on each of the separate nine charges. The court provided us with lunch and we set about to determine the verdict on each charge whether he was guilty or not guilty.

Deliberation and verdict

The view from the jury room was magnificent. Perth’s Swan river, Government House below, and across the river to South Perth and the Narrows bridge were breathtaking views. It took us 4 hours, and we found him guilty on six charges and not guilty on the other three.

The verdict read out

Court was reconvened, the jury foreman read out verdict on each of the nine charges. I looked for a reaction on the accused face, there was none… I also looked at the reaction on the faces of prosecutor and defense lawyer, there was no reaction either… to them this was just routine… another day at work perhaps.

Reflection

My experience as a juror has been good. I’ve had the opportunity to see justice being done, close up…not only that….. I’ve participated in justice being done. I guess this can be said about the jury system, the ordinary citizens can have their say in justice and is therefore not wholly in the domain of the judiciary alone.

Though the jury was dismissed before sentencing was heard (this is normal procedure), I suspect because it was late in the day, sentencing will be done next week in a separate session. The jury’s job was done, we were free to go, we all said goodbye and I shook hands with fellow jurors… wished them the best for the future…I stepped outside onto St. George’s Terrace and waited for my bus to take me home.