Tag: innocence

I once served on a jury and, to my surprise, was voted foreman. The accused was charged with manslaughter, a serious crime with quite a harsh penalty; while driving an aged-care minivan filled with pensioners, he’d hit and killed a pedestrian. The defendant was a facility volunteer who had been taking a group of pensioners shopping. His vehicle collided with the deceased in close proximity to a pedestrian crossing, when the man darted onto the road from between parked cars and into the path of the van.

“Can’t good people teach bad people to be good?” Madeleine asked her mother, with the innocence of a seven-year-old.