Decisions

I squirmed sitting in that awful tattered leather chair as my long legs would barely even fit. The lawyer looked me straight in my eyes as he spoke.

"The defendant has been caught stealing from the store red handed by the camera. You all can clearly see the girl going into the store stealing something and putting it her purse. There's been witnesses letting you all know that this girl stole a iPod and then put it into her purse."

"I rest my case."

The attorney straightened his black and blue bow tie on his white crisp shirt, and then nodded to the defense attorney.

The defendant was a young girl, fourteen years old with strangled greasy brown hair and blue eyes that reminded you of the sky.

The lawyer sat down to his table as the defense attorney stood up. She pushed her dreadlocks away from her face which looked tired.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, I ask if you have never once in your entire life been pushed to do something that you regret? Ever been in love for the first time only to be rejected? Ever feel that you can't do anything right?" Her brown hazel eyes flecked at me for a few moments.

"Yes, my client is young. We all were once, right? Have you never done anything stupid in your life? This girl deserves a second chance. She's been a foster kid from a broken home and she has no where to go, no money to live on and you all want to convict her of stealing an item that most teenagers would want anyway?"

I shifted my weight on the seat as the tension was rising in that awful heated courtroom with no air conditioning. Sweat started to pour down my head as I was trying my best to concentrate. I never did do well for sitting for such a long period of time.

I looked at the young girl at the defense table again. I tried putting myself in her shoes, tried to think if I was ever in trouble if I would do such a thing as steal.

I had been raised Catholic and knew stealing was a sin, but this girl's haunted eyes looked like they could see through my soul.

"I ask you, ladies and gentlemen to do the right thing. Don't put this young girl in Juvenile Detention for the rest of her youth. Let her do community service so that she understands the meaning of giving back. This was a one time thing, you can be assured of that."

The defense attorney looked at me again, why was she looking at me? I started to flap my hands uncontrollably again, it was an old habit that I had had as a kid.

"I think most of you can do that. Be kind to this young lady. She deserves a second chance. Yes, there were cameras. Yes, there were witnesses. Yes, she even admitted to you on that stand to you all as to why she did it. She even went back to the store to return the item, but it was too late. The police had the place surrounded. The boyfriend that pushed her to go in the store in the first place, disappeared and that guy is a pedophile and a creep. He is the one that should be guilty, not she."

I looked over my notes again. Video check. Witnesses said saw a young girl at the store. Girl put something in purse, couldn't see what it was. Girl fled store. Cops showed up few minutes later. Girl showed up again crying.

"I hope you all think long and hard about what the right thing to do here is. I rest my case." The defense attorney sat down next to the young girl and patted her hand.

As the group was led to the jury room again we all were told we couldn't talk in the hallways. The Courthouse guy in the white uniform took us back to the small room with a chalkboard.

The older white guy who was chosen as the 'Foreman' spoke up first.

"Look, I get it. She's young, she was stupid. She knew she stole something and she should get punished. I think jail time for a few months would straighten her right out. In fact, if this was my daughter, you can bet I would ground her for life if I ever caught her doing something this bad."

"I don't think she stole anything." I ventured out for the first time in this entire process.

"He speaks!" The nice lady with the hoop earrings smiled at me.

"Are you crazy? The video shows that she took something and put it in her purse."

"Well, I saw the video and I saw that she looked at something and thought about it. Then her left hand went into the purse, but I didn't see her put anything in it."

"Yeah, true. I didn't see that either, come to think of it." The Vietnamese guy spoke up.

"We can watch the video again, right?" I asked as nicely as I could. My stomach started to rumble. All I wanted to do was get out of this stuffy, hot room with people I didn't know at all. I could only feel tension and angry emotions from everyone in there.

The older white guy went out quietly into the hallway, "Hey bailiff, can you please get us the video again for us to watch? The young guy wants us to watch it again."

I shrugged at the jab. Of course I looked young, but that wasn't my fault. I knew in my gut that this girl was innocent. I couldn't figure out why she attempted such a thing, but I understood her plight.

The bailiff came back to the room again with the video and a few snacks from the break room. I grabbed the bag of pretzels before anyone else could get them.

The video played for us again. We watched the young girl go in the store. She looked hesitant and nervous. I saw the iPod on the shelf. She touched the iPod and then her purse.

"Wait, stop the video." The video all of a sudden came to a stop. "Look, there she is putting the iPod into her purse. I knew it! What a thief!"

"No, no." I said, "Look closer. She touched it and if you look up close you can see that she isn't even holding the iPod in her hands. Back it up and if there's a way to go in slow motion, we can look at it again."

The video went in slow motion, pixel by pixel as we saw that she did touch the iPod but then her hand went to her purse and the iPod was still on the shelf.

That meant she was innocent.

We all walked back into the Courtroom and I felt elated just to hear the Foreman put on the sheet of paper that this young girl was NOT GUILTY. I knew in my gut that this poor girl was free to go and then I could finally go get my bagel and lox sandwich from across the street.