Justice

     Though it is not what I would have preferred, I have little say in the matter, so that when the time came for me to participate there was nothing to do but fret and face it.

     You see, long ago there was a rage in the populace that rose and burst like a bubble and swept away any compassion left in the system and replaced it with the iron revenge that is the current way, all who were guilty must be punished.  Since it was still carried out by humans who are ever fallible, mistakes were made and in the hard code of the law the system itself then became guilty for the innocents that were tossed to the gnashing maw of justice.  There were many times that the punishments came to juries, judges, attorneys and even witnesses for their part in the committing of such crimes.

     This was why I feared and yet thought it just in its brutal way, since for me the loss of an innocent was indeed a great crime.  If it must be thus, if we were to trust this thing to do what was right it was necessary for it to go all the way.  It did not help much when the summons came and I took my place among the others squirming on the jury.

     But we were quickly relieved when we found that the case seemed so open and shut, that the witnesses had no doubt about the identity of the defendant as the one who had committed such horrible acts.  Though there was still an initial hesitation on deliberation we all felt clean in our verdict that sent the monster to his death and I was able to live a life of relative moral certainty.

     Then, after years had passed, the black letter arrived saying that those witnesses who had been so sure were wrong.  This was the universe showing me that in my heart there was truth and that I had been foolish to deny it.