Posted on 03/06/2017 6:08:34 PM PST by TakebackGOP
"A Hispanic man convicted on sex charges could have his verdict nullified because of a juror's racist comments during deliberations, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Decrying the 'recurring evil' of racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the need to erase racial prejudice from legal proceedings overrides long-standing policies aimed at keeping jury deliberations of-limits.
Kennedy, a conservative, was joined by the court's four liberals in the 5-3 ruling.
The justices threw out a Colorado state court decision that upheld the conviction of Miguel Pena Rodriguez.
He was accused of sexually groping two teenage sisters in a bathroom in 2007 at a race track where he worked and was convicted on three misdemeanor counts. Pena Rodriguez can now seek a retrial."
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Kennedy the every evolving squishy liberal joined 4 New Leftists
This is nuts. Destruction of both the sanctity of the Jury box and free speech in one ruling. All in the name of social engineering.
Really sick stuff. This is a disgrace.
This is why there is jury vetting on the front end. Now they want it on the back end too?
Even with Gorsuch on this one we lose.
The story is that jurors should be told to keep their f@@king mouths shut.
“Destruction of both the sanctity of the Jury box and free speech in one ruling.”
There is no violation of free speech.
Around 50 years ago my Father sat on a jury in DeFuniak Springs Fl.
A Black hobo was on trial and it was pretty clear the cops just rousted him for being a hobo.
Now Daddy and probably the other jurors too would be considered racists today. That did not keep them from finding him not guilty. They had no reason to just convict him whether he was Black or not.
“Kennedy, a conservative..”
The so called conservative that forced homosexual marriage down every ones throat. The press thinks this is conservative.
Kentucky is pretty solid red
“This is why there is jury vetting on the front end.”
A former law enforcement officer should not have been on the jury.
That’s the fault of the defense attorney.
please retract that
There is no violation of free speech.
That very much chills free speech in the jury room, where speech should be very free, indeed.
You mean I can get out of jury duty by just asking “Is the defendant a (fill in blank)”
In the Caribbean, and everywhere else, "Hispanic" is not a race.
Precisely
It takes everyone to convict.
One nitwit shouldn’t nullify a jury.
“They are reversing the verdict because of what a juror said.”
They are not ‘reversing the verdict.’
“What the juror said was not illegal.”
No one, not the court, not the plaintiff, not the state has said that what the juror said was ‘illegal.’ The juror has not been penalized in any manner whatsoever.
There is no violation of the juror’s free speech.
FYI
"Now Daddy and probably the other jurors too would be considered racists today. That did not keep them from finding him not guilty. They had no reason to just convict him whether he was Black or not.Oh no! You're pulling our leg! I saw a movie with Meryl Streep, Helen Hunt, Morgan Freeman, and Matt Damon that said Florida cracker jurors always dressed in klan robes, and burned crosses in their spare time.
They are not ‘reversing the verdict.’
There is no violation of the juror’s free speech.
The juror’s speech has already been spoken. It cannot be violated, it is done. What they are doing is chilling the speech of future jurors, by refusing to accept the jury’s verdict. Each juror will not have to consider, is what I want to say allowed? Will what I say be something that judges will disagree with, later?
It puts the entire system in jeopardy. Instead of having to wait out or convince other jurors that a person is not guilty, a juror now only has to say a forbidden word or two to cancel out a jury’s verdict.
This is imposing “hate speech” codes in the jury room.
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