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DNA and the jury
Topic Started: Mar 7 2010, 10:50 AM (265 Views)
Quasimodo

Jurires were originally supposed to be composed of the PEERS (equals) of the defendant.

In that way, they best approximated his own status and knowledge, and could better judge
whether he was capable of a crime.

As well, a jury stood as the last defense against a runaway prosecution; a jury of peers could never be guilty of prejudice or political animus against a defendant.

Today that concept has been tossed into the dust bin; and juries are often selected on the basis of the lowest common denominator--how little they know about anything. Some potential jurors on the OJ Simpson case were disallowed on the basis that they followed a daily newspaper.

I imagine a lax trial might have disallowed jurors who follow blogs; or who regularly get news from computer sites.


In that case, what kind of juries result?

A juror in the OJ Simpson case complained afterward (paraphrased) :
(hat tip to an old poster)

“I did not understand the big issue with the DNA…many people can have the same DNA…several of my friends have the same blood type as me.”

An elderly woman said that she was so lost on the forensics that whenever DNA was mentioned, she just zoned out and ignored the discussions.

Another juror said that she was infuriated with the wife beating tapes and arguments made by Clark. “If you want to have a domestic violence trial, then go to the next courtroom and have it there, this is a murder trial…Simpson’s alleged abuse of his wife is completely irrelevant.”


What would have been the likely reaction of a jury in the lax case after two weeks of listening to Meehan on the stand?

And another week of expert rebuttals?

Followed by two weeks of experts testifying about cell phones; and the cell phone cameras and whether it is possible to change the time stamps on them?

Would a juror have simply said, "All I know is that I saw Crystal Mangum enter the court and faint at the sight of those boys, and have to be carried out on a gurney!" ?
Edited by Quasimodo, Mar 7 2010, 10:51 AM.
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Quasimodo

OTOH, suppose a lax jury was made of the PEERS of the accused--college students or recent graduates who live in a computer and digital world?

Is it FAIR to such defendants to have a jury which is NOT composed of people familiar with these, when crucial evidence in the case requires a basic understanding of and familiarity with computers, cell-phone cameras, and computers?
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Quasimodo

(Since we are supposed to revere our elders and learn from the past, here is the condensed wisdom of Mark Twain on that staple of American jurisprudence, the jury : )

We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world; and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men every day who don't know anything and can't read.
- 4th of July speech 1873

An ignorance so shining and conspicuous as yours--now I have it--go on a jury. That is your place.
- New York Weekly, 7/14/1873 (letter originally written to Josh Billings, 3/1873)

Our admirable jury system enabled the persecuted ex-officials to secure a jury of nine gentlemen from a neighboring asylum and three graduates from Sing Sing, and presently they walked forth with characters vindicated.

- The Gilded Age

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago...I desire to tamper with the jury law. I wish to so alter it as to put a premium on intelligence and character, and close the jury box against idiots, blacklegs, and people who do not read newspapers. But no doubt I shall be defeated--every effort I make to save the country "misses fire."
- Roughing It

On the inquest it was shown that Buck Fanshaw, in the delirium of a wasting typhoid fever, had taken arsenic, shot himself through the body, cut his throat, and jumped out of a four-story window and broken his neck--and after due deliberation, the jury, sad and tearful, but with intelligence unblinded by its sorrow, brought in a verdict of death "by the visitation of God." What could the world do without juries?
- Roughing It

The humorist who invented trial by jury played a colossal practical joke upon the world, but since we have the system we ought to try and respect it. A thing which is not thoroughly easy to do, when we reflect that by command of the law a criminal juror must be an intellectual vacuum, attached to a melting heart and perfectly macaronian bowels of compassion.
-"Foster's Case," New York Tribune, 3/10/1873

(I should hesitate to wonder what Mark Twain would have made of Durham. . .)
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Quasimodo

And if a lax trial had ended in a hung jury (as was very likely, if there was not an outright conviction on at least some charges)--

then how often would Nifong have chosen to retry the case?

Would he have said, "We'll wait a year, and retry it"--because the case would have to wait its turn on the court calendar?

Would he have tried it even a third time, if necessary (his object being, to wear out the defendants)?

Because there was no cost to him in doing so, either financially or politically.

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Bill Anderson
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Quasimodo
Mar 7 2010, 10:54 AM
And if a lax trial had ended in a hung jury (as was very likely, if there was not an outright conviction on at least some charges)--

then how often would Nifong have chosen to retry the case?

Would he have said, "We'll wait a year, and retry it"--because the case would have to wait its turn on the court calendar?

Would he have tried it even a third time, if necessary (his object being, to wear out the defendants)?

Because there was no cost to him in doing so, either financially or politically.

That is exactly right. The Herald-Sun would have supported him to the end, and the NY Times would have done the same, not to mention most Duke Law faculty.

:bill:
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