Rare is the person that likes jury duty. It’s a stressful process for anyone, especially when you are called to felony cases. However, no one is supposed to die in the process of doing their constitutional duty. If a juror’s death was because of a case, that would be something the State’s Attorney’s Office could handle. At the very least, they’d know how to proceed. Unfortunately, Chicago Justice must fight for the dignity of a juror by stretching the law, because there isn’t clear-cut legislature on the some harassment cases yet.
One of the jurors from Stone’s most recent murder conviction is found dead in the lake. Lily Spencer begged to be let off the trial before the verdict was read, but it wasn’t because she was afraid of anything to do with the case. She was being viciously harassed and stalked by her ex-husband Jackson Clark. He would have been better off taking custody of their son instead of spending months going back-and-forth with court motion after court motion. It finally became so bad that Lily committed suicide.
Cyberbullying is a problem that came with the Internet. With the digital age of free space to say whatever you want also came the ability to stalk anyone you want. It’s bad enough that a teenager online can be stalked and shamed just for stating their opinion. 67 text messages taunting the mother of your child is unacceptable. Stone refuses to let Clark get away with what he did, especially since the man (and I use that word as a noun signifying his species, not because he has any kind of honor) feels no remorse. The problem is that there is no definitive law that adds up harassment and suicide that equals to a murder conviction. Stone is indeed able to prove that Clark’s emotional abuse led to his ex-wife’s suicide. The man even forced their son to send disparaging messages to his mother to taunt her. The jury returns with a guilty verdict, but one based on their emotional reaction to the case, not the facts. The man did not physically push Lily into the lake, so he is set free. The amount of people livid with the ruling is unbelievable, and at the top of that list is Stone. He got ahead of himself going for a murder conviction instead of harassment, and it cost Lily her justice. Jefferies reminds him that if the only way to make it right is for the law to change, then he needs to take the initiative and change it.
Does the law need to be updated for harassment and emotional abuse cases?
Follow Us
