The Book of Ashes

Justice for all... 11:00PM

I just got paid out by the goverment today. $298 for doing them a service. Jury Service that is. This time up was my 2nd calling. The first time I had been working out at BRANZ on Moonshine road doing a project for TechTonics. I was the only one doing it so they wrote me a get out of gym letter. That time I got out of gym, this time I had no excuses and besides, I was kind of interested in what it was all about.

Monday: A late start for me. Turn up at the district court by 9:15. For those who don't know where it is, its just around the corner from the Oxidental at the Parliment end of Lambton Quay. So I checked in, sat down in a room with 100 other people and proceeded to wait for 45mins. Like they say, bring something to read, and preferably a magazine with articles as you get little spurts of reading done, not good for a big book. Straight off its interesting to see the spread of different people. Young people, old people, people in shirts and ties, people in their sweaters, a random sampling of Wellington. Well maybe not that random but random enough.

So in comes the [?] organiser person who tells us briefly whats happening then puts on a video and leaves. Pretty boring video. Kinda funny how the old man gets challenged by the lawyer and has to sit back down. Then the video proceeds to start again from the start, luckily the guy came back in and turned it off.

So we got all our names chucked in a bucket. My name got called out as 1 of the 30 odd that got to go into the courtroom from which they choose the Jury. The guy left us in the waiting room. We sat around for another hour. Finally he came back and said we could go, the guy in court had pleaded guilty so we left. Back at work I hopped on stuff.co.nz and found breaking news a guy had just pleaded guilty to accessory to murder, it was the case where they found the mutilated body (missing a hand) at Owhiro bay. So luckily I didn't get that one. Not sure if I wanted to see photos of a mutilated body.

Tuesday: I rang up the Jury hot line and they said we weren't needed for that day so I headed back to work. I'd got 3/4 of a days work done on Monday and a full day on Tueday and I was thinking this isn't going to be too much of a disruption to work. I was also thinking how expensive a Jury is to run. 100 people come in every morning. They get paid $31 each per half day they are there. That is $3100 per day if the Jury comes in then leaves and thats not counting the salaries or running costs of the Jury waiting room. Then 30 odd people get to stay in for the second half of the day (another $900) and these people may get expenses paid for then (dinner or a motel) if deliberation goes on too late (apparently they might take a Jury out to dinner once a week or so. I'm thinking its a very expensive (but probably necessary) service.

Wednesday: I call the hot line. They need me. (I see the bat signal in the sky so I head down to city hall). This time they pick out the random names from the box. One of the guys they call out is Bryan Ashby then later they call his name again. He says yeah I'm here but thats the second time I've had my name called out. They re-read it and its Ashley Bryant. So I get to go into the Courtroom this time. The case is actually going ahead. They call out 12 peoples names, a few people are challenged but I am not amongst them, the last person walks up, he is challenged by the lawyer and sits back down (rejected), they call out my name. I'm on the team. I get the crapiest seat. The one in the front row thats closest to all the curious non-choosen Jury members, closest to the lawyers and closest to the accused. The Judge is a nice old lady (just how you would imagine) and tells us we get to retire to choose a chairman.

So we walk out to a room. We get to introduce ourselves to 11 other people, then we have to choose one to represent us and to give the verdict at the end. I sure as hell don't want to do it. So someone has the great idea to go around and see who has any experience holding/chairing meetings etc. A few people have some. Then we ask for volunteers. No one is jumping forward so this guy in his 40s is choosen who is a manager type at a bank. He seems a good choice. So we head back out and I craftily get a better seat, back row centre. The place where you can pick your nose and hopefully not be noticed. Not that I would do that, just that if I did, thats the place to do it.

So the trial begins. Theres an old man lawyer, fat dude with a grey beard but sounding offical whos representing the accused and a younger, very prim and proper woman who is representing the crown. We get the low down from the Judge and the intros from the lawyers. The case begins and the day is over.

[to be continued...]