Proud to be an American: My New Appreciation for the US Judicial System

This week, I was called to jury duty for the first time. While I was surprised to be called in the first place, I also had expectations for when I showed up.

I expected…

• that I may or may not be needed for an actual trial,
• that if I was needed, it would be for a minor case,
• and that I would definitely need to spend a few hours at the courthouse, but not more than a day.

As with most assumptions, this one made an ass out of (you and) me. Well, maybe not you, but it seemed that not only were all of my expectations wrong, but the rest of the potential jury’s as well.

For starters, the case was a criminal trial and the death penalty or life in prison were possible outcomes. Certainly not what I expected. But without getting into the actual case, there were other unexpected things that came out of this experience for me.

It was an amazing education

I mentioned that this was a criminal trial for one reason only: to explain the education I got out of the jury selection process. With such serious stakes, the judge did a wonderful job explaining the process and the law to us.

Since I haven’t had much experience with the judicial system before this (other than learning about it throughout school), it was extremely informative.

It’s a fair system

Deciding a person’s fate is a scary thing, but let’s keep in mind that if that person is guilty, it’s how our system works. What was so exciting to me is that this is one of the reasons why America is so great.

The judicial system, like all the other branches of government, is made up of checks and balances. Think about it: a group of civilians with differing views and opinions that are charged with hearing testimony, then deciding the innocence or guilt of the defendant.

It’s kind of a beautiful system. And it’s not perfect, but it’s fair.

It’s amazing that we get to do this

Not ever country has systems in place to allow its residents to be apart of government processes. Like I said, ours is not a perfect system – there’s never going to be a perfect one – but I’ll take it. Again, I think it’s important to note, that even as a civilian, we’re included in these systems. Whether voting for our elected officials or being apart of a journey, it makes me proud (excuse the cliche) to be an American.