Phila.gov
Read full report at CBSNews.com
As an IT specialist, 37-year-old Korey Wallace is used to offering support to others. But he says he was the one who needed help after serving on a jury for a murder trial in Philadelphia.
The jury ultimately convicted a man accused of first-degree murder in the killing of a 27-year-old transgender woman. Investigators found her dismembered body in a river near a park that Wallace used to frequent.
“There would be nights where I was just driving around the city and I might make eye contact with a transgender person as I’m in the car. It’s just like a lightning strike. I thought I was over it, moving past it, and I was getting dumped back in these flashes,” Wallace said.
Jurors were shown gruesome pictures of bloody crime scenes. Wallace said he never saw the victim’s face until after the trial.
“The first thing I saw was her face and the eyes and the hair and it struck me. This woman that was full of life was so savagely murdered,” Wallace said.
Across the country, 11 million people report for jury duty each year. Less than half a million will serve on violent criminal cases, including murder. But counseling and mental health services offered to jurors after those verdicts are rare.
Philadelphia Jury Commissioner Patrick Martin wants to change that. He set out to create a program to help jurors handle trauma.