I had jury duty about three weeks ago. Walked to the courthouse, about four blocks from my home, sat around for a few hours, and was dismissed. Walked back home wondering what it might have been like if I’d been assigned to a trial…if I’d have had to decide a man’s fate based on hearsay and testimony.
But I didn’t. I had my lunch and a cup of tea, walked the dog, and went back to work in my home office. Put on some Chopin and wrote an article about the YMCA for my weekly column.
On Friday, February 27, in a nearby courtroom, an all-white jury rendered verdicts in the trial of Andre Dewdney of Palmer, Massachusetts, a black man. He had been charged with murder, manslaughter, negligent motor vehicle homicide, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, after an incident which resulted in the death of Joseph T. Mailhott.
The death occured on the night of November 14, 2007, outside McCarthy’s Pub in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Dewdney, the only black person in the place, had been sitting in the bar with a woman, apparently minding his own business, when a drunken Mailhott approached him to buy marijuana. When Dewdney said he didn’t have any drugs, Mailhott became enraged and abusive, uttering racial slurs and accusing Dewdney of having stolen money from him. The female bartender asked Dewdney to leave, which he did.
Mailhott followed him out, knocking his hat off, kicking his Jeep hard enough to put a dent in it, and running in front of the vehicle as Dewdney, frightened, tried to drive away with his friend. Dewdney realized he’d hit Mailhott, but kept driving. Once home, he called the police and reported the incident, agreeing to go to the station. But before he could get there, he was arrested by police at his home.
The bartender’s damaging testimony at the trial didn’t match her statement taken after the incident, according to police. No other witnesses reported any threatening or antisocial behavior on the part of Dewdney that evening. He was just one panicked black man trying to get out of an all-white Irish pub as fast as he could. Apparently, the victim just assumed that because Dewdney had Rastafarian dreadlocks, he must be a purveyor of pot.
I’m a licensed bartender myself, among other things. And what I want to know is, why did the bartender ask the harmless Dewdney to leave? Why not the out-of-line Mailhott? Bartenders today have a legal responsibility not to allow their patrons to overindulge, as Mailhott apparently had. (The coroner found him legally drunk.) If you can’t defuse a situation, you’re supposed to call the police. Before someone is dead.
Most people I know think of jury duty as a pain in the neck. Of bartending as a way to make more money in tips than you have to declare. Of going out for a drink on a Wednesday night in a small town as a low-key way to relax. In fact, you never know when you are going to have to make a call which puts your ethics on the line.
The jury found Dewdney innocent of murder, manslaughter, and homicide. Guilty of leaving the scene on two counts. He’ll be sentenced Friday, March 6, for that. He’ll get a year in jail for poor judgment, instead of life in prison for killing a man.
Springfield’s The Republican has been covering this story. No one article gives a complete picture of what’s been going on. Here’s a link to the February 28 article. Thanks to Greywater for the lovely photo.
