It was the final day of the trial. An unnervingly thin, tall black male sits in the witness stand. His mother sobs intermittently at the sight of seeing her 18 year old little boy standing there, alone, amongst men. Again. This time it wasn't shoplifting. It was far more serious. It was robbery. The crackling of the tape recorder makes a ...crackling noise. It is this boy's police interview tape, being played to the jury to clarify a disputed point. "Are you lying to me" asks the officer, probably an overwieght beardy bloke. I could tell that he was a fatty, I guess you can call it intuition. Or maybe I just saw him giving evidence earlier, but that doesn't matter. The interview concludes with the boy repeating his well thought out "likely story".
The jury are quiet. I notice a man with a distinguished moustache on the back row. He looks like some sort of colonel, and I don't mean the fried chicken variety. He sits there upright, with that solid Faulklands look in his eyes, "I've killed before, and I will kill again" I imagine him to be thinking right now. Oh yes, this bad boy has 'foreman' written all over his neatly moustached face. The prosecutor asks "Would the jury like me to play the tape again?". Silence. The Colonel straightens up his already upright posture, and with the authority of a Frenchman chopping an oinion, states "I think that I have heard enough!".
I got the distinct feeling that this old boy was thinking "this black thug is trying to get away with robbery, well he shall never fool me". I should say that the evidence consisted of a poor identification, circumstancial evidence ("I was robbed by a tall black guy"- Atticus Finch where are you?), the weapon wasn't found, no independant witnesses or cctv, and to put some glaze on the cherry, involved a flawed identification procedure. It is a frightening insight into what might go on in that deliberating room. Everybody comes in with different experiences and different prejudices I suppose. A young chavvy looking lady on the panel did ask to hear the tape again, in what looked like a show of solidarity for the young man. Hurrah for the ignorant, disengaged screenagers eh?
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4 comments:
So? Did he get off?
Hi Android, unfortunately he got found guilty. Strangely, it was a unanimous verdict. I might have misinterpreted the show of solidarity by the young chav. Naturally, the colonel was the foreman :)
Well, at least you're got jury reading practice ticked already :)
Always interesting watching the jury! And welcome the blawg world....good first posts!
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