It is a relief when our system works as it ought, a working that can occur only if a number of people do what they must, even though they might rather not.

What “must” be done by any juror in our legal process sounds so simple: Keep an open mind, pay attention, consider only the evidence presented in the courtroom, decide what facts have been proved, agree on a verdict.

Simple in concept, a juror’s work is anything but easy in execution. This week, a Ketchikan jury delivered a guilty verdict in a case that was difficult from start to finish. As a result, a man who is only 19 years old will be in jail for years, the number to be determined in April after a presentencing investigation.

From all appearances, the jurors decided correctly. But this is one instance in life where doing one’s job well might not imbue a person with a sense of well being. Of course the rest of us are relieved when a jury’s finding confirms that it’s not OK to riffle through someone else’s property and then, when caught, to stab the victim, who dies. Being sorry or being scared of the consequences of getting caught as a thief is no excuse. And unlike many mistakes we all make in life, this one can’t be fixed.

That truth established, there was no happiness in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. Two families’ sons are gone. For the victim’s family, there is some comfort in knowing that justice was done, but that knowledge does little to fill the empty place in their lives. For the family and friends of the perpetrator, there is not only the loss of his presence, there is the loss of a future that might have been. Some people have changed and even bettered themselves in prison, learning finally, in the most difficult way, lessons that just didn’t take when they were on the outside. We can only hope that will be the case with this young man.

But none of that is certain now. Right now, we see only the preventable waste of two lives, and tragedy touching many beyond those two.

What we know now is that our peers, and theirs, listened to the facts and judged the case, for all of us.

It was not an easy two weeks for anyone, but especially for jurors.

Anyone who has served on any jury knows it is no easy job to sit in judgment of other frail humans. We thank these jurors, and the jurors who serve throughout the year, for acting on our behalf to keep the wheels of justice turning. A difficult job, worth doing well. No matter which side of a case we might be on, all of our lives depend on their doing their job right.