Posted on 06/13/2005 12:36:01 PM PDT by Dog
Just breaking...
In my opinion the system is designed to eliminate many excellent jurors. For my purposes an excellent juror is one who has good common sense and strives to evaluates evidence analytically without getting emotionally wrapped up in it. Touchy-feely emotional jurors are a headache and a hindrance because you have to spend so much time finding ways to package the evidence so that it appeals to or counters defense appeals to their gut and their biases (which they always deny that they have).
I would rather try my case before, and be judged by, an analytical juror who admits he or she has biases but will strive to set them aside, than by an emotional juror who claims he or she loves or respects all of God's children, has no biases, and just wants to do the right thing.
It makes perfect sense to me.
I think.
Jackson did spend a big part of the dinner segment of the evening chatting with an unidentified dwarf.
Prominently displayed outside for all to see was a mural of Jackson with children surrounding him as if he were the Pied Piper.
******
Jackson's enormous bed was covered with a blue sparkling comforter and crowned with a long mural of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper."
The cluttered bedroom was strewn with an array of stuffed toys and dolls, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and a mannequin of a boy seated on a high-baked velvet chair.
snip
The bedroom, in which Jackson is alleged by prosecutors to have shown the accuser and his brother pornographic magazines and websites, also features as spa bath and a large-screen television.
On the second level of the main house, the jurors who could send Jackson to jail for up to 20 years, saw a children's world that included what Lafferty described as a "toy room" and a "doll room."
The doll room was packed with dolls, including life-sized boys and girls.
In the toy room featured a bed strewn with dolls including Pinnocchio and Gepetto, full-sized models of Superman, Batman and "Star Wars" characters R2D2 and C3PO, a carousel horse, and a cut out of former child star Shirley Temple.
What is the old joke about jury intelligence? They can't be too smart or they would have figured a way out of jury duty.
When the verdict was not based on the evidence, an infinite amount would not change a thing.
The lawyers on Court TV said they thought the conspiracy charge wouldn't stick, and they wondered about the effect the mother's testimony would have on the jury. But they said the last, the rebuttal witness tape was extremely effective for the prosecution...a man, a youth minister, recently married, totally believable. This witness, the lawyers said, was rock solid believable. But the prosecution couldn't get anyone in Jackson's pay to stand up and tell the truth about his behavior. Well, it's all in that book that came out last week....written by a close friend of more than 30 years. Should sell like hot cakes. I hope the jury had doubts about his innocence, and that's why it took them a week to sort through the evidence. Maybe it wasn't just the good food. But they didn't come across as having a lick of sense.
There simply wasn't any actual evidence - or maybe I missed the evidence you mentioned. It all boiled down to whether or not you believed the accuser and his brother. The jury simply found them not believable.
So now we know that in California preying on other people's little boys and destroying their innocence may be immoral but it is not illegal. Case closed. May those jurors toss and turn w/guilt during their sleeptime when Michael Jackson continues as before.....and he will.
You're right, it would do no good to prosecute any juror shown to have been paid off. Too expensive, and riots might ensue. But it really gets my goat when MJ's father physically threatens the DA in the courthouse hallway and gets away with it.
It can be done. I convicted a guy of subornation of perjury (acquitted at his first trial) by the subsequent testimony of the perjurer herself, a witness I did not even have authority to compel to testify. I also got his previous "victorious" previous defense counsel barred from representing him in the second trial. In fact, by the time we got to trial the case was so solid he pleaded guilty to get a cap on sentence.
Corroboration is the key. You have to independently corroborate the h*ll of the case, but if you are willing to put in the time, you can do it, if the evidence is there.
They could have gotten him on the alcohol charges, but decided to wash their hands of the entire deal. Snedden, the DA, said when he heard 'not guilty' on the second count, he knew they'd find him not guilty on everything.
Maybe you should have been outside the courthouse releasing doves with the rest of Jacko's Whackos today.
I agree. For a moment, I was a little annoyed that some of the jurors seemed not so bright.
But, look, they are under a lot of stress. On international TV. And, let's face it, attorneys want people who can be molded, and they also have to be in a position to give up months of their lives. You didn't have to be a genius to read the writing on the wall in this case. They all agreed on the verdict and the pundits were thinking the same basic thing.
This rhetoric on FR reminds me of the Schiavo mess. But I think the same types of people gravitate to these stories.
Try and find an affordable lawyer. I'm just so disgusted with the whole thing. Remember the McMartin preschool debacle? Innocent, but absolutely ruined financially.
The number of respectable families who allow their children to step foot in Neverland are in short supply.
I think one reason we're so upset about this verdict is also that the likelihood of Natalee Holloway's being found, dead or alive, or her killer/s brought to justice is highly unlikely. We'd like to see justice somewhere.
"I cannot fault the DA. The DA bought a case to trial because that minor was victimized. That's what the State is supposed to do."
I agree...but the DA is supposed to present his case...especially in a highly publicized and scrutinized case such as this in such a manner that it's a slam dunk in his favor. Especially when he's getting a second bite at the same apple.
Mr. Sneddon failed to do that. He presented a case that on almost all points was shredded by the defense.
The only prosecution wittness I can see that wasn't impugned was the step dad. But that wasn't enough to keep the prosecutions case from falling apart.
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