Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Why No One Is Ever Going to Make a Good Jurror

Casey Anthony actually seems to have a pretty good defense. She's found experts willing to claim that the chemicals and insects found in her car trunk are not in fact reliable evidence of anyone having kept a body there, and for better or worse, under the presumption of innocence, that should, in the absence of a corpse, be sufficient cause for a jury to release her. Unfortunately though, she or her lawyer has decided to make a "positive defense," meaning one that does not simply refute the claims of the prosecution, but asserts its own claim, in this case one dealing with coyotes.  She probably should've seen that Meryl Street flick about the Australian chick who blamed the dingoes.  That didn't work out too well for her, either.
     Unfortunately though, simply refuting a case is probably not enough to get a verdict of innocence.  It didn't work for Jesus, after all, and he actually knew the guilty parties.  Unfortunately though, very few people sitting in that despotism called a jury seem to want to find anyone innocent anymore, and can we blame them?
     People on a jury are taking time out of their normal lives to perform a civic duty.  At best, they spend long hours waiting for some clerk to list them as a candidate for something, and if selected they have to face a lot of very presumptive questions about themselves from lawyers trying to weed out jerks.  Lastly, during the trial itself, they have to sit for hours at a time and listen to a disorganized presentation of claims and guess truth from lies while hoping not to look stupid by missing or misunderstanding anything.  Compare it to the most boring class you ever faced in high school but remember that you can't leave after forty-five minutes, that you can't tell anyone what happened to you at "school,"  and that failing this class will cause a hardship for someone and probably piss off Thomas Jefferson and Henry Fonda's character in 12 Angry Men.  In the face of all this pressure then, the average jury is going to want all that bother to serve a purpose, and for that reason they're going to want to do something big, like hanging somebody or exonorating them forever.
     Unfortunately though, having been through all  the aforementioned bullshit, they aren't as likely to save anyone as crucify them
     Just a few thoughts....

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