Subject to Change by Renee Rodin

Author:Renee Rodin [Rodin, Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: memoir, Renee Rodin, single mother, single parent, literature, creative nonfiction, short stories, Vancouver, Montreal
ISBN: 978-0-88922-966-2
Publisher: Talonbooks
Published: 2015-02-23T05:00:00+00:00

Judgement

When I received notice in the mail to appear for jury selection I groaned, as did everyone else I mentioned it to. Even if survival isn’t at stake, we’re all constantly making judgements, but I’ve yet to hear anyone say they’d like to sit on a jury. Still, I had more faith in the process of twelve people determining someone’s innocence or guilt than a lone judge taking on that immense responsibility. I figured if I didn’t step up when I was called upon, who would or who should? Mainly I was curious.

It was like a cattle call for extras, there were about three hundred of us crammed into a provincial courtroom at Smithe and Hornby in downtown Vancouver. Juries were being selected for three different trials. I was a potential juror for the first one. Alone on a bench slumped a woman, her shoulders hunched. In a Hawthornian moment, when she was ordered to stand, to be named and shamed, I could see Madam X was about forty-five years old, tall and extremely buff. Beneath her flimsy jogging suit her body rippled with muscle.

She was charged with smuggling and possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking, and looked scared, indignant and defiant as she pleaded “not guilty” and then slid down again to resume her comma shape. The judge asked, “Does anyone here have a problem with heroin?” I can’t say that I have since I’ve never tried it. Though I heard if you didn’t have to resort to stealing, prostitution and other dangerous activities in order to obtain it once you were addicted, heroin wouldn’t be so problematic.

After a friend’s teenage daughter died because the heroin she injected was too pure, I was convinced that legalizing and controlling drugs, to make them safely available rather than nefariously profitable, was the only solution. Our prisons are filled with users who couldn’t afford fancy lawyers to represent them. But the dealers, those who do harm to others, they need to be stopped—somehow.

As each of our names was called one by one we squirmed through the crowd to stand in the front docket. Close by on a high chair sat a petulant-looking judge wielding his gavel like a baby’s rattle. Appealing to him was our last chance to duck out of jury duty.

A woman said, “Your Honour, this building is making me sick, didn’t you hear me coughing?” There are buildings containing toxic materials that produce allergic reactions but she’d been at the back of a big hall and the judge couldn’t possibly have heard her. He had himself a good laugh and didn’t excuse her, or any of the other people who said in perfect English, “I can’t speak the language.” But he immediately dismissed the man who was close to tears as he said, “My wife is very sick.” Who would tempt fate with a lie like that?

Then the lawyers got to pick and choose whom they wanted as jurors. The young man who slouched over to the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.