Another visit from snow

Earlier this month, we got more snow. This pleased me, we hadn't had a good snowfall for weeks and it certainly felt as if we were due another before the season changed. It's since melted but we got to enjoy it while it lasted. With climate change, I feel less sure that what comes up next is going to follow past patterns, at least this one worked out. I hope that the flowers I see around now get to enjoy a lack of snow.

Serving as a juror

Some while ago, I was summoned for jury service at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. I was warned that I may be needed then, one morning, told that I had been selected in a ballot and that I should show up that very afternoon. It was strange to spend a few days getting to know, one way or another, my fellow jurors, and the various participants in the courtroom. It turns out that, unlike in the US, a sheriff acts as a kind of judge, and wears a wig accordingly. They may ask witnesses occasional questions directly, typically clarifying examination that preceded.

It was odd to reflect on the secrecy of the jury's deliberations. We saw a couple of courts, with nearby rooms for the jury, which would typically be kept locked. We inhabited our own bubble of secrecy but those rooms see a long sequence of such, each filled with different people and details. For each case, us jurors are part of a new community, filling our minds with increasingly much detail about people and events. Then, verdict is rendered and that microcosm promptly evaporates. A side-effect of the secrecy is that, after all is done, we may not even reveal what it was that most swayed our thinking.

An interesting aspect was the clear instruction we received in how we may reason: what counts as evidence, what to consider in evidence, such as the credibility of the witness and the reliability of their testimony, that we either accept or reject evidence, in whole or in part, but after rejection we should then just move on as if it were never offered, etc. The Crown was to prove particular elements of the criminal case by both direct evidence and corroboration, so as not to warrant the not proven verdict particular to Scotland, so there was some interesting background on that, also on the standard for reasonable doubt by which defence evidence may justify not guilty.

I have been instrumental in decisions that change others' lives, such as hiring and firing, but deciding about a criminal case brought a new sense of gravity. After it was all done, I wondered what the truth of it all had been, also what happened to the participants since the incident, then since the trial. I am content never to know, to leave it all behind along with our deliberations. The verdict matters but our part is now done and I left it behind gladly. For me, normal working life resumed promptly the following day.