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The makeup of the Jury in the Trayvon Martin case.

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ruveyn
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14 Jul 2013, 7:11 am

Just in case some of you Progressive Liberals think that George Martin was freed by a bunch of red-neck Crackers, think again. Here is the story on the make up of the Jury.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1378193

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GoonSquad
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14 Jul 2013, 8:18 am

Florida's "justice system" is pretty wack....Source <--click

Quote:
Florida is the state most likely to send the wrong person to death row. Twenty-four times since the mid-1970s, we have sentenced an innocent person to death. Twenty-four times. No other state has racked up more exonerations.

So tell us again why we need a law that speeds up executions?

Known flaws in the system are the biggest reason why Gov. Rick Scott should veto the Timely Justice Act, a bill recently passed by the Florida Legislature that would super-charge the death penalty process.

The legislation would require the governor to sign a death warrant within 30 days of a Supreme Court review, with execution to follow within 180 days.

The law would give wrongly condemned inmates about eight months to prove their innocence before our government puts them to death.

And remember, there are no take-backs in the lethal-injections business. That fact alone should guide the governor's decision.

The New York Times recently reported on another Florida death-row inmate, Clemente Javier Aguirre-Jarquin, who has presented DNA evidence that could set him free. It took seven years for the evidence to surface. If the Timely Justice Act were already law, he would not be alive to fight for his own justice. As it stands, he appears poised to become the state's 25th death-row inmate to be exonerated.

Also remember Broward resident Seth Penalver, who was wrongly convicted of first-degree murder and spent a dozen years on death row before his conviction was overturned last year. His life is Exhibit A for the mistakes made in Florida's death penalty system.

Florida has always had a love affair with the death penalty. It was the first state to reintroduce capital punishment after the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 cleared the way. We also won the race to perform the first involuntary execution seven years later.

Since 1973, Florida has carried out capital punishment 76 times. The last occurred last week, with two more scheduled in the next month. For each man, their stays on death row exceeded 20 years.

Proponents of speedier executions say decades-long waits are an affront to justice, as well as to victims' families. In overwhelmingly passing their bills, the Senate and House of Representatives were bent on slashing the 13-year average length of stay, though the national average is higher, at 14 years.

But skimping on due process — and wrongly killing innocent people — is too high a price to pay for speedy justice.

Many Florida death row residents end up there due to a lack of wealth, no access to qualified defense attorneys, racial bias and poorly instructed juries, according to a study carried out seven years ago by the American Bar Association. The inequalities still exist.

We understand the desire of lawmakers to appear tough on crime. It's why we have laws like Stand Your Ground and a justice system that sends more juveniles to prison than any other state.


I think I'll stay well clear of Florida, thanks.


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ruveyn
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14 Jul 2013, 8:46 am

Irrelevant. The Martin Case was non-capital. That is why the jury consisted of only six people.

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14 Jul 2013, 9:02 am

^^^ Yeah, yeah... Your mileage my vary. :roll:

I'd say it says quite a bit about the mentality of the average Floridian and Florida's Jury pool.


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14 Jul 2013, 9:25 am

I say that if anyone does not like the verdict or how it was reached, they should exercise the courage of their convictions and either petition for a new trial or work to change the laws that enabled this acquittal.

Whining and crying on a social website dedicated to ASDs is not going to change anything.

Show's over folks. The band's gone home, and they're setting the stage for the next media-driven circus.



zer0netgain
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14 Jul 2013, 9:57 am

Fnord wrote:
I say that if anyone does not like the verdict or how it was reached, they should exercise the courage of their convictions and either petition for a new trial or work to change the laws that enabled this acquittal.


You can't try a person twice for the same crime.

Thanks for the link...interesting article.



ScrewyWabbit
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14 Jul 2013, 10:02 am

ruveyn wrote:
Just in case some of you Progressive Liberals think that George Martin was freed by a bunch of red-neck Crackers, think again. Here is the story on the make up of the Jury.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1378193

ruveyn


My father is a retired lawyer. He used to say "juries are comprised of twelve people who are too stupid to get out of jury duty". Of course, in this case six people, not twelve. But the point's the same.



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15 Jul 2013, 3:16 pm

GoonSquad wrote:
^^^ Yeah, yeah... Your mileage my vary. :roll:

I'd say it says quite a bit about the mentality of the average Floridian and Florida's Jury pool.


Yeah, with all those yankees, canucks, and foreigners in Florida. I hope you're going to tell me that you've been to Florida and I haven't. That would be fun for me at your expense.


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ruveyn
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15 Jul 2013, 3:34 pm

GoonSquad wrote:
^^^ Yeah, yeah... Your mileage my vary. :roll:

I'd say it says quite a bit about the mentality of the average Floridian and Florida's Jury pool.


I got the impression that the six ladies of the jury understood "reasonable doubt" quite well.

The Prosecution had a weak case to start with and they bungled the case they brought.

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15 Jul 2013, 4:20 pm

Anybody that watched much of that trial could see that the prosecution had a very weak case. The prosecution's closing statements were pathetically weak. I know that attorneys are basically legal mercenaries and put on shows of fake emotion during trials but in this case I really think O'Mara and West were pissed off at the prosecution for real. Don West flatly refused to shake hands with them after the verdict.
Based on what was presented to the jury, it would have been wrong and just plain partisan of them to render a verdict other than what they did even if they personally didn't want to render that verdict.


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15 Jul 2013, 5:44 pm

I would have to agree that there was definitely a lack of evidence that could have been used for the prosecution. I personally feel that Zimmerman was guilty of profiling, but I think he was profiling a teenager out after dark more than he was profiling a black man. I think Zimmerman was guilty of several crimes, but I also think that if Martin had lived, there would have been a pretty strong case against him as well.

All that being said, the jury made the correct decision (from a legal standpoint - the only one that should matter to a jury) given the case presented. Even if the prosecution had done a better job, the evidence against Zimmerman was limited and mostly speculation or circumstantial.

It does bother me that the prosecution only made a half-hearted attempt, but I would be just as disappointed if the defense had done a crappy job. I strongly feel that a fair trial should mean that both the prosecution and the defense should make the absolute best case that they can, and it always upsets me when one side or the other just phones it in.


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ruveyn
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15 Jul 2013, 7:20 pm

Fnord wrote:
I say that if anyone does not like the verdict or how it was reached, they should exercise the courage of their convictions and either petition for a new trial or work to change the laws that enabled this acquittal.
.


Here is the 5 th amendment.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.[1]


Now what did you say about petitioning for a new trial?

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15 Jul 2013, 11:19 pm

This was not a trial, it was a performance put on by the prosecution and judge. Their objective was to avoid responsibility for Zimmerman going free; at the same time engineering a not guilty verdict for an innocent man they knew was being prosecuted for political ends. They did not want the protests in front of their homes, or the death threats that would likely follow if they appeared to be anything less than passionate in the pursuit of Justice for Trayvon. Nor did they want to have the political tide turn against them, had they alienated JfT supporters. So they did their best to appear to be zealous seekers of JfT, while through their actions leaving sufficient grounds for the jury to find Z not guilty or for Z to successfully appeal in the remote possibility of a guilty verdict.

Of all the players, only the defense was acting as it was supposed to.