On Attending a Trial for Attempted Murder

I've been attending an attempted murder trial this week. Hmm, you say, she must have been a juror. Not. Wish it were that simple. For the last 35 or so years, I've been the godmother to a family that used to live on my block before it became fancied up. It started out simply because our kids played together. One day the youngest, who couldn't have been more than five, told me that his mother had died that day. Shocked, I ran over to see what I could do, and what that turned out to be – to arrange the funeral - turned into a lifelong commitment. I think I've been very blessed.

Without going into details, one of the children of the godchildren was marked by a gang for execution after a fistfight. He was shot three times in the head - and survived. Three other people, standing nearby in the wrong place at the wrong time, were also shot, if not as drastically. What strikes me most about the trial is the placidity even triviality in the enumeration of other crimes that these young men have committed. Of course, the criminal justice system deals with that sort of thing every day, and can't help but be a little tired, a little bored by it all. The officials do their work, but there is no - dare I say majesty? - in the recounting of how lives came close to being cut short.  

I am astounded by one thing - the vastness of the rewards that was offered by the witness protection program to a person whose criminal record was astonishing in its depth, breadth and general frighteningness.  It is understandable that a protection program might be offered in a case if really top-level criminals, otherwise unreachable, could with a high degree of certainty, be convicted as a result of testimony by their underlings.  This, however, isn't what I saw.  There was no high-level ring of criminals who would otherwise have gotten off;  we are talking about ratting on a group of teenage thugs, highly dangerous, indeed, but local, strictly local, and with every chance of of doing serious time for the attempted murders, based on the testimony of a lot of witnesses and some excellent police work.  In return for his testimony, a witness protection program was offered to someone who already had convictions for at least two murders, three armed robberies and a rape - there might have been more charges, but these stand out in my mind.  At well over six feet and weighing in the neighborhood of 275 lbs., we're not talking about the sort of person one might feel safe riding along side in an elevator.  We're talking about a one-person serious crime wave who would be put into witness protection.  God help those around him if he gets put into a new life! I know a bit about witness protection programs, as it happens; I've known two persons, both in that same family, who were witness to and victims of attempted murders.  They needed safety so they could testify; neither had a criminal record of any sort.  The guy on the stand breaks the bank for well-founded terror in his presence; he should never see the outside of a cell, much less government-sponsored freedom among an unsuspecting populace.

Only two people I've heard bring me to my feet by the power of their belief in the law's potential for justice. Two women earned my deep admiration. The first is the mother of the victim. She's going blind, has diabetes, heart conditions and god only knows what else. But what she doesn't have is a thirst for revenge. Not one angry word in her. In addition to caring for her stricken son - his life now permanently ruined by seizures and personality changes - her heart has reached out to take in another child, deserted by his mother, and to raise him well. What a class act! The other woman who totally earned my admiration testified at the trial. She was driving by when the crime occurred right before her eyes. She didn't flee and hide. No, she did her civic duty; she called 911, reported the shooting, and returned into the city to testify about what she saw. Not a lot of people would be so brave, these days. Two fine Americans, doing the right thing as they see it.  God bless them both.