Agree.
I think the best solution would be to have more than one judge for each case like this, and get rid of jury's, as you suggested.
Keep on hearing from the legal beagles here,..."because its the law",...
FAST
Cop who shot black man in back 8 times walks free
- Thread starter stinkynuts
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I think the best solution would be to have more than one judge for each case like this, and get rid of jury's, as you suggested.
Keep on hearing from the legal beagles here,..."because its the law",...
FAST
Because most people living in Common Law jurisdictions prefer the jury system to the Continental Civil Law panel of judges system.
Further, in the U.S. the right to have a jury trial is a Constitutional right (Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution as well as the Sixth Amendment) which must be actively waived by the defendant..
As to the blue section, indeed that is rather the point, in the famous words of Blackstones formulation: "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"
Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765
There are times when the law does not reflect the will of the people. For example, I think no jury ever convicted Henry Morgentaler in the abortion cases. I think the same with Jack Kevorkian.
Question: Does the defendant always have the right to ask for a judge only trial? Of course, some (many?) defendants prefer a jury trial because they figure they can charm the jurors.
Looking at the troubling statistics, is it reasonable to be reminded of Don Lemon's (a Black, CNN anchor) somewhat famous and controversial comments during the George Zimmerman acquittal in 2013:
"'Black people,' Lemon said, 'if you really want to fix the problem, here's just five things that you should think about doing.'
The No. 1 item on that list -- 'and probably the most important,' he said -- had to do with out-of-wedlock births.
'Just because you can have a baby, it doesn't mean you should,' Lemon said. 'Especially without planning for one or getting married first. More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers. And the studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison and the cycle continues.'"
What Lemon describes is a culture problem. It's not that there isn't culture, it's whether or not it is the type that truly promotes human flourishing. Watching videos like the one below, our hearts go out to any mom or dad (hopefully, both) trying to raise a child right in such carnage.
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The Jury foreman informs the Judge that they are unable to come to a unanimous decision, at that point the Judge declares a mistrial. Dismisses the jury (no hostile connotation to dismiss) continues bail conditions or imposes new bail conditions for the defendant.
So merely a matter of syntax and protocol the Jury say they are deadlocked, but it is the Judge who makes it official.
www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/05/02/us/michael-slager-federal-plea/index.html
Interesting development. Defendant to plead guilty. Reported that the plea deal is for a charge of "Excessive use of force". Potential sentence is up to life in prison. Wonder how much additional time he will spend behind bars? The article includes a link to the plea agreement.
Interesting development. Defendant to plead guilty. Reported that the plea deal is for a charge of "Excessive use of force". Potential sentence is up to life in prison. Wonder how much additional time he will spend behind bars? The article includes a link to the plea agreement.
A plea agreement as I speculated back in early December might occur. Now what is interesting about this one is that he is pleading to a federal charge not a state charge (the state is dismissing with prejudice the murder charge).
Plea Agreement
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/05/02/slager.global.plea.agreement.pdf
https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthrea...s-walks-free&p=5703871&viewfull=1#post5703871
Plea Agreement
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/05/02/slager.global.plea.agreement.pdf
https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthrea...s-walks-free&p=5703871&viewfull=1#post5703871
Agreed
You do know that to render a guilty verdict a jury does NOT need to be unanimous right?
So if 11 say guilty & 1 says not guilty the person still gets a conviction
You been watching too many old movies (12 angry men!)
A judge can certainly limit what a jury can decide or even set aside a verdict
I'm sorry to be a killjoy, but that is the exception not the rule for criminal trials in the U.S.
In a Federal criminal trial the verdict must be unanimous, this is also true for criminal trials in every state save for Oregon and Louisiana which require but 10 of 12 jurors to convict (save for capital cases where Oregon requires 11 jurors and Louisiana requires a unanimous verdict).
But that isn't going to happen - hence one of the reasons for the plea agreement.
I doubt it. Although perhaps I'm going light I'm going to speculate a sentence of 15 years.
Lucky we live in Canada where it is even easier to render a verdict without a unanimous jury
But US certainly does do it too, just not as often
