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| For obvious reasons, the following diary contains no names. It also contains no specific dates or places. |
We were quite excited by the promise of today's evidence, because by looking over the shoulder of Crown's assisting solicitor, we could see her notes on who was lined up as the next witness, and we knew that it was supposed to be the salesman who sold the chain and D-shackles to Accused A. This would be a crucial witness, and would hopefully clear up the mismatch between the chain found on Deceased's body and the chain as described in the salesman's first police statement, and the salesman's mysterious second statement, alluded to by the police detective who had taken his statement (Witness 8), but objected to by Defence and about which we had heard nothing since.
Witness 38. Salesman at Hardware Store, who sold chain and D-shackles to Accused A. The Crown began by asking if the witness could remember the date some years ago and the particular sale to Accused A. The witness said it was too long ago, and he really had no recollection of that day any more.
Crown had the witness confirm he made two statements to police, one a couple of weeks after Deceased's body was found, one about 6 months later. The witness had also drawn a map of the Hardware Store for the police, and Crown asked the witness to describe where on the map the chain and D-shackles were located, then tendered it as evidence. Crown asked how late the witness had stayed back at the police station to give his first statement, and the witness said, "Quite late, about 9 or 10pm." Crown asked how he recalled that and the witness said, "Because I got in trouble for getting home so late."
Crown showed the witness the receipts already tendered as evidence, and had him describe the one which showed the purchase of 15 metres of 3/8 inch galvanised chain and 5 D-shackles by Accused A. The witness confirmed it was his handwriting, and his initials in the "sold by" box on the receipt. Crown asked if this refreshed the witness' memory of the sale, but the witness said he still couldn't recall it specifically.
Crown then had the witness look at his first police statement while he read from it. The statement described how the witness had made a sale of chain and D-shackles to a man, who had charged them to Accused A's Property Maintenance Company (PMC), and signed with Accused A's name. The statement said that the witness had laid out a 3-metre length of chain and was using it to measure out 15 metres when the customer had asked if he could have it in three 5-metre lengths. The witness had said sure and cut off a 5-metre length, then measured out the rest and "cut the chain two more times" - thus creating three lengths of chain.
Crown asked how the witness usually measured lengths of chain, and the witness said he measured a metre with a gauge, then used that length of chain to measure off additional metres. This was significantly different to the method described by Witness 8, which involved the witness measuring the first metre by taking a length stretching from his outstretched hand to the centre of his chest.
Crown asked, "Is that how you always measure chain, or do you use a different method?"
Witness said, "No, I always use a gauge. It's the most accurate way."
Crown said, "Isn't there some other way you have used to measure lengths of chain?" while stretching an arm out to one side.
Defence interrupted with, "I object, your honour. Crown is leading the witness."
Crown changed his question to, "Is there some other way you use to measure chain?" without the gesture.
Witness replied, seemingly puzzled, "No."
Crown left it there, and read a bit more of the witness' first statement, which continued to describe details of the sale. At one point, Defence interrupted again and said, "Your honour, we're not disputing that Accused A purchased chain and D-shackles. I object to the next two paragraphs of the witness' statement being read out, as they're not relevant."
The judge looked questioningly at Crown, who said, "With respect, they are relevant."
About now, I could feel the air of certainty in the jury box that we were about to be asked to leave the court while they sorted out the admissability of this bit of evidence. The judge turned to us and said, "Sorry, ladies and gentleman, but we'd best settle this issue out of your presence. We'll take an early morning tea break." So we were led back out to the jury room after only about 25 minutes in the court.
We talked about how this poor guy, who must have been barely out of school when he sold the chain to Accused A, had been embroiled in this murder case for the past few years of his life, called in to give testimony multiple times, and be completely and honestly unable to remember anything about what is one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in the case. He looked like he was trying his hardest and wanted to help as much as he could, but the enormity of what he'd accidentally been caught up in was simply not enough to allow him to recall the events in question. And now he was having to spend more time in court, having his every word scrutinised in intense detail by a group of barristers, a judge, and a collection of strangers who would weigh what he said and use it to decide the fate of two men. Several of us expressed the feeling that we felt sorry for this witness, and that he must be wondering why this had happened to him.
We had some coffee, tea, small snacks that some of us had brought in. I started a new game of Scrabble, this time with Jurors G and B in a team, A and D in a team, C and H in a team, and me by myself. The other jurors read newspapers or books. We finished the game, getting a bit silly towards the end, when we started allowing rather questionable "words". Soon after finishing, and by now well after the normal end of morning tea, a court officer came in and said we could go outside into the small garden for a while.
We were normally let out into this garden during lunch for about 20 minutes, but had to stay within the paved area near the door, to avoid being visible from windows further along the building that looked into the judge's chambers. This time, however, presumably because the judge was busy in the court with the barristers, we were allowed on to the small grassed area beyond. We were like little children finally allowed to do something we'd been dying to do for ages, as we savoured the relative freedom of being able to walk on the grass. The entire garden was a triangle about 8x10 metres, with the grassed area smaller because of the broad flower beds between it and the iron fence. The fence had a tall solid section in above short iron posts, so we couldn't see out very well, but looking over it we could see the tall trees in the park across the road and office buildings in other directions.
We were herded back inside about 20 minutes before lunch. A few minutes later the court officer came back and said that we could start eating our lunches, as the trial wouldn't resume until after the lunch break. So we ate, and started up another Scrabble game. By now we were getting a bit silly from the frustration and delays, and decided to make the game more interesting by restricting words to those used in the trial, and allowing proper names of witnesses, suspects, and other significant names. We said we would use the trial transcript (now filling two thick two-ring binders) as the "dictionary". One early triumph was someone playing the word CHAIN. We also managed to play the name of Restaurant, LOWER (as in "lower brainstem"), and the surname of a witness.
This game caused much mayhem and laughter, but other jurors expressed disgust at us having to wait so long to make any progress in the trial. As the game was drawing to a close, the court officer called us into the court. By now several people had commented that we would probably just be dismissed for the day as the judge and barristers wrangled with more legal technicalities. Indeed, this was what happened. The judge said he needed to ponder something overnight before making a ruling, so dismissed us for the day.
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