That is a great story. You should put it in your files.
I might steal it for a sermon some day.
What was really interesting is that right before the prosecutor gave that hypothetical, the defense attorney had given a speech to the jurors to the effect of:
“This is Mr. Smith. My Client. According to the law Mr. Smith is standing before your and he is innocent. And until you go into that jury room to deliberate, you have to carry that idea into your head. Mr. Smith is innocent.”
Then he quizzed each of the potential jurors with the question “Do you understand that and are you ok with that”.
The same group of people who had later said they would have no problem convicting the boy scout (of a crime which the prosecutor didn’t explain) all said that they had no problem in viewing the defendant as innocent (without having any idea of what crime he was being charged with).
Talk about incongruous hypotheticals. The same group that had promised to view Mr. Smith as completely and totally innocent of any crime before the evidence is presented, had no problem at all in convicting the boy scout of beating Charles Manson with a baseball bat without hearing any evidence at all.
It was literally surrealistic.
Frankly if I were the defense attorney I would have moved to strike every juror on the grounds that they were willing to convict a boy scout (who would be considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt) but were willing to consider the defendant (who by my observation was probably a two time convicted felon based on his visible prison tattoos) of being completely innocent of anything.
But then it is funny that jurors appear to be more concerned about the peer pressure from their fellow potential jurors than either being truthful themselves or thinking for themselves.
It was an educational experience. Unfortunately nobody questioned me about anything. I might have had the opportunity to at least open a few eyes of these people to reality. But reality is not something you will get in a courtroom. Instead you get a very choreographed opera where the song and dance has been pre-arranged and verdict is pretty much guaranteed by the court before any evidence is presented. All they need are 12 people who are willing to follow instructions and not think about truth or justice.