A TRAIL

I have just finished reading ‘A Trail by Jury’ written by D. Graham Burnett. The book describes the experience of Mr. Burnett sitting as a juror in a murder trail. There is on passage in the book that was fascinating to me, after sitting in deliberation for 4 days things got really very tens and he describes the feeling he had about the immense power the state has over each of us, that is once you get into its claws. “All of us probably would have agreed in the abstract before the trail even started, that the state was powerful. But after four days of sequestration, we had developed a new and immediate appreciation of just what this power meant: the state could take control of a person, it could refuse to let you go home, it could send men with guns to watch you take a piss, it could deny you access to a lawyer, it could embarrass you in public and force you to replay meekly, it could, ultimately, send you to jail—all this, apparently, without even accusing you of any crime.” Page 160 I found this very eye opening and was living the entire trail.