I had been appointed by a court to represent a woman trying to get a divorce. She was also accused of attempting to murder her husband.
I went to the courtroom and found a room full of people from which the jury was to be picked. Both the attorney for the opposing side and I were allowed to eliminate four people whom we didn't want to be on the jury. We both had a list of names. We decided not to waste much time in asking the people any questions before eliminating any of the people and the opposing attorney first called out the names of four people he wanted eliminated. The four people walked out of the courtroom.
Since I hadn't asked anyone any questions, I wasn't really sure who I wanted to eliminate. But I noticed one black man whom I didn't think I wanted on the jury and I called out his name. I also decided to eliminate another man dressed in a purple robe. His name was "Pastor" and he was apparently a preacher. I called out his name.
I was uncertain whom else I should eliminate. So I simply picked a name at random from my list. The name was Brewer and I called it out. Brewer turned out to be a man about 25 years old with a mustache and longish hair. When I saw him I thought perhaps I had made a mistake in eliminating him; he might have benefited our side.
I called out another name and the four people I had called walked outside.
Louise was one of the people on the jury panel; I wondered if I should have eliminated her. I was unsure I could trust her to be on my side.
A man walked up to me and identified himself as the referee. He was wearing a black and white stripped shirt such as a referee would wear in a sports contest. He began looking through my client's file and pulled a paper out of the file which contained some information about the case. A woman on the jury was standing next to him and appeared to be reading the paper. I grabbed the paper away from the man and explained to the woman that the paper contained evidence to be used in the case and that she couldn't see it yet.
I looked through the file. My client was a Russian citizen who had moved to the United States. She was a dissident who had married an American citizen. The file also contained some nasty pictures which someone had drawn of my client. One picture was drawn in red and was rather abstract. It was quite clear and showed her with a big, round, scary head.
I talked with Louise about the case. I told her the case represented almost every aspect of a relationship which one could imagine. I had never tried an attempted murder case before and was becoming quite emotionally involved in the matter.
Someone on the jury mentioned something which I needed to prove in the case to show that my client hadn't tried to murder anyone. I thought it was a good idea and wrote it down on a tablet I had.
I thought one issue in the case might be whether my client had been able to afford her own attorney or whether the court had to appoint an attorney for her. I didn't think it should be brought before the jury that she hadn't been able to pay an attorney and that I had been appointed.
Copyright 2003 by luciddreamer2k@gmail.com
