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Today I made a difference. Today I changed a life. Today I helped set an innocent man free.

I've spent the past week here in Boston serving on a jury in Superior Court. Although I've been called to duty several times in my life before, this week was the first time I ever actually had the opportunity to serve. And I'll be honest... When it started I was hoping to find a way to get out of it. Looking back on it now, just a few short days later its hard to believe, but its true. Me. A PhD Candidate studying political science, specializing in American politics - I was hoping not to serve. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it is true. And after the first day, when I felt all my worst fears had been confirmed, I was more sure than ever that I was right to want a way out. A rant was brewing, full of self-cenered anger built on unbridled annoyance. But then...

Then I was selected. I heard the case. I listened to and examined the evidence. I watched the defendant, the witnesses, and the prosecutor. And I knew, knew without any doubt whatsoever, that sitting before me was a man accused of a crime he did not commit. And that, amazingly, I could actually do something about it. Against the full power of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I could stand up and say "no." I could set an innocent man free.

As I'm sitting here writing this, I hardly even know where to begin. There are so many things I'm feeling, so many things I'm thinking... The system? It works. We, the people, 12 average citizens on a jury, we set a man free. We, not the state, had the power to decide the evidence. We, not the state, were given the power to alter the course of the rest of his life. The only word that comes close to describing how that feels is "sacred." That is no exaggeration. Sacred.

And yet, at the same time, I'm angry. Furious. The man was innocent. The case against him so pathetically barren I cannot even believe he was forced to stand trial. The wrong cab, the wrong day, and suddenly his life is turned upside down. How? Why? Shouldn't it take more? How could that possibly have been enough? The case was armed robbery. Carjacking.Assault and battery of a police officer. This man could have quite possibly spent decades in prison. And for that the prosecutor calls only 3 witnesses? One of whom almost entirely corroborated the defendant's testimony? For a crime committed at a busy intersection in the middle of the day on one of the most crowded streets in all of Boston? Right smack in the middle of the BigDig? Why was this man force to stand trial? How could the system possibly have gone so wrong?

But I don't want this to be a rant. Not today. Because today an innocent man has gone free. Today he has gone home.

We the people, we heard the evidence. We discussed and deliberated. And then we returned to the court to deliver our verdict. That moment.. I've never felt anything like that moment. And I'll never forget it. The look on his face, the fear - no, the terror in his eyes. His mother, sitting in the courtroom behind him. What must have been going through her mind? Her son - her flesh and blood - his future hanging in the balance. For a crime he did not commit. It is a moment I will never forget.

The judge asked us to deliver our verdict....

Count One. Not guilty, your honor.

Count Two. Not guilty, your honor.

Count Three. Not guilty, your honor.

Count Four. Not guilty, your honor.

I watched a man regain his freedom. I watched as he fought back the tears, as his mother and sister broke down sobbing prayers of thanks and joy. A man's life had been returned to him. A mother's son had been returned. A sister's brother had been set free. And I... me... one average citizen... I was there to make sure it happened.

I'll be honest. I don't know how I didn't cry too. How, as I walked past the family, walked past the defendant himself on the way out of the courtroom, how I didn't join them in their tears. Sacred. I know of no other word to describe what just happened. It was a sacred moment.

Our system isn't perfect. It is, I am more convinced than ever, only as good as the people who make it happen. And that means we must all play our part. Democracy, and everything that means, it doesn't happen on its own. It doesn't happen by accident. We have to stand up. We have to play our part. We have to choose to make it happen. To will it into existence.

And when we do, yes, it works. It is not perfect, but it works. But it depends on us. What would have happened today if the 12 of us had not cared? What would have happened if we had not taken our duties seriously? What if, god forbid, all of the good people decided it wasn't worth their time to show up, wasn't worth the effort to participate in their own governance? What if, one day, someone I care about finds themselves wrongly accused? What then?

Am I getting carried away? No. No I am not. Today I made a difference. Today, because of me and 11 other average men and women, today an innocent man was set free.

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