Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[B <beeline AT mindspring.com>]

I agree with Tanner ... I too have served jury duty and found that my fellow 
members really wanted to do the right thing. Not only is serving on a jury 
one of the very few civic duties our country demands of us (along with paying 
taxes for citizens with good-enough jobs and/or property), it is also a point 
of regular citizen insertion into an area of government that directly affects 
us, an area that is too easily misused. You are aware of recent reports of 
prosecutor misconduct in which information was withheld so that innocent 
folks were sent to prison.... Also, jury nullification is not a myth; 
consider the effect of the tendency of 1960's and '70's juries to refuse to 
send pot users (and small-time dealers) to prison. Do away with the citizen 
jury and you have an arm of government that can pretty much do whatever it 
wants.

~B


-----Original Message-----
From: Tanner Lovelace <lovelace AT wayfarer.org>
Sent: Jul 1, 2004 10:05 PM
To: 
        "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/"; 
<internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [internetworkers] [rant] legal outrage, setback for rape vic's

Alan MacHett said the following on 7/1/04 7:13 PM:

> I have little faith in our justice system.  It is predicated on the trust
> of 12 "peers".  In 18th century America, in practically any smallish
> community, that concept works as it was intended.  The people in a
> position to know one best, or at least have heard of you, are the one's
> best suited to judge one.  And somewhere along the way we gained the
> notion of an impartial jury (impossible, really, but the intent is
> honest); that's an idea I support as well.
> 
> But today's justice system is littered with the verdicts of juries swayed
> by emotion or the barest hint of a shadow of a possibly-maybe doubt. 
> Should I ever be foolish enough to find myself standing trial, I most
> likely will waive my right to jury trial and trust my fate to a judge or
> judges.

Alan,

Am I right in assuming you've never served on a jury?  Because that's
what it looks like to me from the cheap seats.  If you've never sat
on a jury, then perhaps I can see how you might think this way, but
those of us who have sat on a jury don't buy it in the least.  Sure,
there are some people like that, but the majority of people who
sit on a jury, I believe, are people that are trying to do the right
thing, consider the evidence and come to the right conclusion.  It's
not perfect, but then nothing is.  It's still nowhere near how you
describe it.

Tanner
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