[cripplecreek]

This is an interesting case on a couple of levels.

Right off the top, it shows that black men can get justice. In this case the injustice appears to have come at the hands of a crappy prosecutor and an easily swayed jury. The evidence was extremely flimsy and the witnesses were questionable with a history of lying. The accused has a pretty much stellar history and has raised adult children who have also kept their noses clean.

Judge McBain is our local hanging judge and for him to set aside a verdict like this really means something. McBain has made national news before in his angry sentencing of Camia Gammet.

John McBain, Michigan Judge Angry Rant To Convicted Woman : 'I hope you die in prison'

[IronJack]

In the American system of jurisprudence, justice is the process, not the result.

[GeronL]

Judge nullification vs Jury Nullification

[null and void]

Alice begins to doubt that justice really will be done.

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

The biggest killer of mankind

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[null and void]

The tin god in a black robe:

[PAR35]

Had to get almost to the bottom of the story to figure out what was really going on:

“McBain said he was additionally concerned with the jury, which was entirely white. “

[abb]

It happened in this very famous case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys

The defense moved for a retrial and, believing the defendants innocent, Judge James Edwin Horton agreed to set aside the guilty verdict for Patterson. Horton ruled the rest of defendants could not get a fair trial at that time and indefinitely postponed the rest of the trials, knowing it would cost his job when he ran for re-election.[86]

Judge Horton heard arguments on the motion for new trial in the Limestone County Court House in Athens, Alabama, where he read his decision to the astonished defense and a furious Knight:

These women are shown ... to have falsely accused two Negroes ... This tendency on the part of the women shows that they are predisposed to make false accusations... The Court will not pursue the evidence any further.

[oldplayer]

Assume the prosecutor, defense attorney and judge are all acting in good faith. At the end of the day, only two people will really know the truth here.

Oldplayer

[RIghtwardHo]

WOW. While a judge has that authority and SHOULD use it when appropriate ... I never saw it in 25 years of prosecuting.

[BenLurkin]

“If I had tried this case as a bench trial, I would have absolutely found him not guilty.”

Guess what, Your Honor — it WASN’T a bench trial!

[Mr. K]

I was hoping Judge Ito would have done this in the OJ trial AND thrown every member of the jury in jail for contempt of court.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It used to be in old Britain that judges could “direct a verdict of conviction”, basically order a jury to find a defendant guilty. Eventually this caused a revolt, of sorts, where juries refused to find guilt where they thought there was none.

So a new principle was enshrined, that a judge could throw out a juries conviction, but not their acquittal.

[hecticskeptic]

Well, there’s mankind’s laws... and then there is God’s laws. What was this fellow Patterson doing shacking up with this girl’s Mom anyway? This judge may have let him off the hook but some day he will face the Great Judge.... Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.