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To: Huck
. . juries scare me too.

Me, too.

Not so much because of the jury system itself, but because judges (and prosecutors) preemptively dismiss any potential juror who understands that the jury has a duty to judge the law as well as the facts. Jurors are "instructed" by the judge, and those instructions limit what can be considered in the jury room to just those topics the judge wants discussed. Anyone breaching those instructions, if reported to the judge, can be held in contempt.

This, of course, was not the way juries worked in the early days of the Republic. They were independent until federal court actions in the late 19th century tipped the balance in favor of judges (and prosecutors).

We might as well forget about ever getting a lower court to rule that the fedguv has overstepped its bounds. A jury is as unlikely to tackle that head-on as a judge is.

32 posted on 10/11/2009 8:40:23 AM PDT by logician2u
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To: logician2u

The American people are quite docile. Life is still to comfortable for anyone to get serious. Myself included. I have a nice home, I love my job. I just want to be left in peace. And our political class is corrupt. What we chalk up to ineptitude is probably almost always corruption. And each side (the voters, I mean) seem to think only the other side does it. I think it’s all a sham, like pro-wrestling. Bread and circuses.


33 posted on 10/11/2009 8:44:33 AM PDT by Huck ("He that lives on hope will die fasting"- Ben Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac)
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