2008م - 1444هـ
The Appeal



The jury was ready.

After forty-two hours of deliberations that followed seventy-one days of trial

that

included 530 hours of testimony from four dozen witnesses, and after a lifetime

of

sitting silently as the lawyers haggled and the judge lectured and the

spectators

watched like hawks for telltale signs, the jury was ready. Locked away in the

jury

room, secluded and secure, ten of them proudly signed their names to the verdict

while the other two pouted in their corners, detached and miserable in their

dissension.

There were hugs and smiles and no small measure of self-congratulation because

they

had survived this little war and could now march proudly back into the arena

with

a decision they had rescued through sheer determination and the dogged pursuit

of

compromise. Their ordeal was over; their civic duty complete. They had served

above

and beyond. They were ready.