ফিলাডেলফিয়া আঘাতমূলক বিচারের পরে বিচারকদের সমর্থন করার জন্য প্রোগ্রাম চালু করেছে
Korey Wallace, 37, an IT professional, is used to helping others. But after serving on a jury in a Philadelphia murder case, he says he’s the one who needed help. A jury ultimately convicted a man for the first-degree murder of a 27-year-old transgender woman. Investigators found her dismembered body near Wallace Park. “There would be nights when I was driving around the city and I would make eye contact with a transgender person while I was in the car. It’s like a lightning bolt. I thought that I had gotten over it, I had moved past it and I was just thrown into this flash,” Wallace said. Jurors were shown gruesome photos of the bloody crime scene. Wallace says he didn’t see a photo of the victim until after the hearings. “The first thing that I saw was her face, her eyes, her hair, and it just hit me. This vibrant woman was just so brutally murdered,” Wallace said. Nationwide, 11 million people apply for jury duty each year. Less than half a million will serve on violent criminal cases, including murder. But counseling and mental health services for jurors after these verdicts are rare. Philadelphia Jury Commissioner Patrick Martin wants to change that. He set out to create a program to help jurors cope with trauma. “I’m pulling everyday people off the street – a deli worker, a plumber, a librarian. They don’t really know what they are dealing with when they come in for jury service,” Martin said. “The jurors are mine. They’re my responsibility. Not just when they are summoned to call, but after they go home too.” Martin partnered with Michelle Poler, a psychologist at West Chester University, to develop a plan. Graduate students trained by Poler offer jurors at least three free counseling sessions. “They utilize a technique called Psychological First Aid,” Poler said. “It’s not dissimilar from what first responders get.” “What we do with psychological first aid is really focus on where we can customize it for jurors.” The program launched in April, and Wallace was one of the first jurors to take advantage of it. He helped me disconnect that web of threads that have all the conflicting emotions tied to it. I couldn’t have done it without him,” Wallace said.
প্রকাশিত: 2025-10-30 05:54:00
উৎস: www.cbsnews.com
