Shackled by ignorance: One juror’s agony over the verdict in a child rape case

“I felt handcuffed. I felt like if a gun was being held to my head. It was not a good feeling but would could I have done?”

These were the words of a female juror who had sat on a case that dealt with the alleged sexual assault of a child by a man. In the end he was found not guilty – 11-1 not guilty of rape and 11-2 not guilty of sexual assault.

“It was not what I wanted because I knew it was a child. But what could I have done? I tried to talk to them and show them that it was a child but that didn’t make a difference,” she said in an almost shocked tone.

I approached her to speak her after the verdict and she was very hesitant since she felt she could have gotten into trouble. But I