He was probably the first blind juror to sit on a Denver (Colorado, U.S.) jury. Joe Kovach, 29, recently sat on the jury that convicted gang member Timothy Guy Kemp of first-degree murder after a trial that lasted several days.

For Kovach, serving on the jury tested his senses and tested the ability of prosecutors, defense attorneys and Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman to put aside any beliefs they might have about a blind person sitting on a serious court case.

While other jury members took notes, he used a tape recorder during the trial because his Braille machine would have been too loud and distracting to others.

Kovach said that during jury selection, Hoffman and the lawyers asked him how he would "look" at evidence such as crime-scene maps and diagrams. "I told them as long as it is described to me while it's going on or in the course of jury deliberations, I could go back and look at everything," he said. In addition to asking the lawyers to be descriptive, Kovach also requested that he be allowed to whisper comments of witnesses into the tape recorder.

There were times Kovach needed a bit of help. Jurors helped him through the maze of exhibits and boxes in the courtroom. And on at least one occasion, they helped him assess the demeanor of a witness, a police officer from the Denver gang unit.

"I think as long as everybody agrees that they can make (arrangements) to make it as easy as possible for that (visually impaired) person, I think it is a great idea. They are just as able to make sense of the evidence as a fully sighted person," commented, Dennis McKinney, the jury commissioner for El Paso County.

Kovach is not the first blind person to be seated on a Colorado (state) jury. Three legally blind people have served there in the past eight years.

For Kovach, the experience was a good one.