For the past 10 weeks my schedule has been at the mercy of the Riverside County Superior Court. As many of you know (I posted about it weeks ago) I was called for jury duty at the end of August. I thought it would be one tedious day and out—just like dozens of times before. After all, I have been told by prosecutors and defense attorneys alike that they wouldn’t want me on any jury.
And yet there I was. It was Friday morning and I had been in the selection process nearly two weeks. We started with 400 potential jurors. We were down to less than 20, and the jury wasn’t quite complete. Finally, they declared the jury impaneled. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the judge said, “Now we need to select the four alternates”. Oh boy. Five minutes later I heard the judge ask the defense if “Mr Christian” was acceptable. To my surprise he said “yes”. One chance left. The judge asked the prosecutor, and he said “yes”. The judge told me to take my seat. I was alternate #1.
I was put together with 15 others (12 jurors, 3 other alternates). We did what we were told, when we were told, and we spent a lot of time together. We talked in the hallways and at lunch. We joked to avoid saying anything about what we were focusing on—the fact that (as the verdict eventually determined) an 18 year old kid had shot and killed a 10 year old.
Looking back on the experience I learned much. I’d be happy to talk with anyone who wants (I was forbidden to talk about it at all until yesterday afternoon—hard for me. REALLY hard for me!). But two things stand out. The good news and the bad news.
The bad news is what it took to get this jury together. A young man’s life literally depended on it. These people would decide whether he would go free, spend the rest of his life in prison with no hope of release, or be executed (he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole). Aside from all the people who managed to avoid even reporting, it took 400 to comprise the jury. Of the 400, NINE left without being excused (not many were) or challenged. That means it took 391 to make it work. And the 16 were an interesting group.
The good news is that, despite the limitations of the group, despite what I consider the extreme limitations of the trial process itself, I believe the final verdict was just.
There is more bad news. No one wins in a situation like this. The victims are many—the ten year old who was killed. His mother and brother who were with him and nearly killed themselves. Their family members. The family of the shooter who were put through a nightmare of their own. The many people forced to investigate, arrest, guard, prosecute and decide the case—and their families. And the society itself, which has not only been impacted by the emotional impact on these dozens (hundreds?) of people—not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent. No one wins.
But there is more good news. All of this is part of the fall. All of this is directly related to our sin—individually and as a created species. But God has overcome the effect of our sin. He has implemented and carried out a plan that provides the only hope any of us have that this horrible situation can be overcome. That ten year old boy was loved by our Lord. His family and friends as well. But so are the others affected. Even Greg Lymuel, 22 years old, now a convicted murdered who will spend the rest of his life in prison without hope of release. Yes, Jesus loves and died even for him.
Will he respond to that love? I don’t know. I do know it is the only hope, and the only good news that can come from our sin.