Tuesday, June 14, 2005

DID JURY ACQUIT OR PARDON JACKSON IN SEX ABUSE TRIAL

Rush Limbaugh said today that the jury was not convinced of guilt in the Jackson sex abuse case. “They didn’t have the case; they didn’t make the case.” He said he did not know Mr. Sneddon, the prosecutor, but that he, Limbaugh, just knew that Sneddon presented a case which did not convince an ordinary group of jurors.

This assumes that the jurors were not convinced. You will never get the truth from post verdict interviews of jurors if they have pardoned an accused. Some of the jurors have said that they did not like the mother witness. That should be enough to furrow the brow. Some criticized the parents of the boys for allowing the boys to sleep with Mr. Jackson. That should cause puzzlement.

Under our jury system, the jurors are judges of the facts, and they take an oath to decide the case according to the law and the evidence. They promise to set aside their biases, and their prejudices, and to not be influenced by what may be the consequences of their verdict.

Contrary to the rules, the prospective jurors are subjected to obfuscation and appeals to bias and ignorance, by some defense lawyers (mouthpieces). The jury selection system has been allowed to become an opportunity for the mouthpieces to argue their cases and condition the jury, under the guise of seeking a fair and impartial jury.

The conditioned jury has been misled and is ready to justify its action in granting the pardon. Maybe they should be allowed to simply grant a pardon; but that is not their right under the law as it is, the rule of law.

The jury system is not perfect; it is not even very good. My suggestion is increase the number of jurors, to 25, say; eliminate the exemptions; eliminate the peremptory (no reason needed) challenges to jurors; and allow a super-majority verdict. In this day of the mobile society, and the broadened jury pools, it is simply unwise to allow one or two jurors to prevent a verdict.

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