First, I was a law enforcement officer for over 30 years, and secondly I attended law school for two years.
Secondly, I was involved in around 500 trials, ranging from minor misdemeanors to long term felony prison sentences.
A trail is parts:
A. The Jury- In the early days, I had to sit through Jury selection. What I found was that if you are intelligent and know things, you are excused
If you are a Nurse, doctor, cop, attorney, or know any cops, you are excused.
B. The Judge- Judges are attorneys in robes. The two opposing attorneys and the judge are in the same fraternity. Favoritism is involved as well as political view.
C. The Attorneys. Basically, a trail is the effort of attorneys to "Put on a show". The prosecutor tries to put on his/her show, and the Defense attorney tries to block the prosecutor.
Several rules are in place "To make it fair". You can not talk about a defendent's (Perpetrator) previous criminal history.
You can not show "inflammatory photos" of the blood and gore the Defendent caused,
The Defense attorney tries to put on his/her show, and the prosecutor tries to block it.
The Defense can call "Expert Witnesses", (Or as we called them, "Liars for Hire")to blur the picture or contradict what witnesses have testified to.
In this case, the defense killed the case with excess trivia, and put out a lot of "Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda".
The Court selects me, sends me to Orlando away from my home area, sequesters me and then treats me like I am not capable of listening to the evidence and reaching a proper verdict. There are some similarities in comparing this trial to the OJ trial. Judge Perry overly mothered the counsels by constantly using "Side Bar" conferences excluding the Jurors; while Judge Ito was too worried about showing prejudice against the defense by constantly ruling against the prosecution.
ReplyDeleteAnother failure to reach the correct verdict.