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In Praise of Unanimity: Awadallah Acquitted | 6 comments (6 topical)

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quibbles (none / 0) (#5)
by roy on Sat Nov 18, 2006 at 12:37:16 PM EST
It is a citizen's duty to support the verdict of juries, as they always have more information than the general public...

A citizen's duty is to second-guess all government actions.  Jury decisions are no exception.  Just my opinion, of course.

Objectively, juries are sometimes not given information which is available to the general public.  Sometimes corrupt lawyers hide evidence from the opposition, or honest lawyers mistakenly don't present evidence.  Judges can order that evidence not be presented because of irrelevance or because it wasn't properly gathered.  If the jury doesn't hear about a bloody murder weapon with a defendant's fingerprints on it because it was collected without a warrant, then the general public has better information than the jury does.

Trial by jury is the best solution we have, but that doesn't mean we should ignore its imperfections.

[ Parent ]

Very true. It's far from perfect. (none / 0) (#6)
by Bill Arnett on Sat Nov 18, 2006 at 12:43:44 PM EST


[ Parent ]

In Praise of Unanimity: Awadallah Acquitted | 6 comments (6 topical)

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