Rough Justice?

[Douglas Adams (imported)]

It probably would depend on the number of shepherds on the jury.

[Blaise (imported)]

To return to an old Navy joke, are you shagging (in the hypothetical) good looking or ugly sheep?

[jemagirl (imported)]

Oh do I hope the appeals process is taking place in a venue far away from the original one, because it sounds like there's a linch mob mentality at work. As I said before I am against the death penalty on moral grounds, but this sort of thing should be a wake up call to every one in this country.

[dingbat (imported)]

Damnit! I should have known better than to make any sheep references here! The sheep was meant to be illustrative, you know metaphorical, sort of ... oh never mind!

By the way Blaise, last time I was in Massachusetts, I rented a house and my next-door-neighbour there was ex-US Navy. I can tell you, based on that experience, that sheep jokes are genteel by comparison to the jokes he told me! Ohh, how we laughed!

Jema, You're totally right, it should be a wake-up call but somehow I just don't think it will be, far too much ingrained feeling and from the info I have about people who've tried to help out with appeals in the past, they don't get a good reception from the lynch mob.

I'm certainly not implying that only the US has this problem, we have similar problems here too but we don't have the death penalty.

I, too, am against the death penalty particularly when the convicted person is innocent!

In all seriousness, this whole thing is beginning to take me over. Started out as just another project but I'm just so outraged by some of the stuff that's gone on that I'm finding myself really having to try to get my head around just how small minded and bigotted people really can be.

[jemagirl (imported)]

As luck would have there's a program on the radio now where the director of the Innocence Project is being interviewed. They said the 200th case was overturned on DNA evidence today. The man spent 24 years of his life in prison having been wrongly convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in Chicago. Fortunately for him it was not a capital case.

[Kangan (imported)]

I had to serve on a jury once. The defendant had been wrongly accused of burglary. To make a long story short, because he was a drunk and a low life, the other jurors wanted to convict him. Finally reason prevailed and we let him off.

The bottom line here is, if the jurors don't like your life style, they will convict you.

[BossTamsin (imported)]

So much for the vaunted ideal of "twelve good men and true".

[dingbat (imported)]

Kangan, that doesn't surprise me in the least although I wish it did. Sadly I don't think that type of thing is rare and since doing more pratical forensic work (rather than just teaching which, as Marx would say, is 'non-productive labour'! ) I've been truly shocked at some of the things I've seen.

IEunuch, something I can safely say for sure is that if I ever committed a crime and ended up in court one thing which would scare the life out of me is the concept of being judged by 'twelve good men and true'!

[BossTamsin (imported)]

I wouldn't have any problems with a trial of mine being judged by a jury of my peers. At least not so long as I get to define what qualifies as a peer.

[Blaise (imported)]

Damnit! I should have known better than to make any sheep references here! The sheep was meant to be illustrative, you know metaphorical, sort of ... oh never mind!

By the way Blaise, last time I was in Massachusetts, I rented a house and my next-door-neighbour there was ex-US Navy. I can tell you, based on that experience, that sheep jokes are genteel by comparison to the jokes he told me! Ohh, how we laughed!

Jema, You're totally right, it should be a wake-up call but somehow I just don't think it will be, far too much ingrained feeling and from the info I have about people who've tried to help out with appeals in the past, they don't get a good reception from the lynch mob.

I'm certainly not implying that only the US has this problem, we have similar problems here too but we don't have the death penalty.

I, too, am against the death penalty particularly when the convicted person is innocent!

In all seriousness, this whole thing is beginning to take me over. Started out as just another project but I'm just so outraged by some of the stuff that's gone on that I'm finding myself really having to try to get my head around just how small minded and bigotted people really can be.

The only bad time on those remote and isolated Pacific Islands is when itis one's turn to be the sheep.