S2M wrote:StevePerryHair wrote:S2M wrote:Law 101....a defendant doesn't take the stand, they're quilty.
The 5th amendment to theconstitution gives every criminal defendant the right not to testify, and jurors will be told that they cannot assume anything negative if the defendant decides to keep quiet. Of course, some jurors do make assumptions -- and they cast their votes accordingly.
Sean, I do not want to think that jurors MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. They are not doing their civic duty if they do. What you are suggesting, why even have a court system. You don't go by feelings. They are told exactly what they can and cant' do. And there isn't just one juror, so that the people who don't understand, a majority will follow things the way a jury is told to.
This was my husband's, a cop's, 2 cents from facebook and I agree, though I doubt any of you care.:
"My two cents
We still have the best, most fair, legal system in the world. Do most of us believe Casey is guilty? Sure we do. I think she's guilty as hell, and she'll burn there some day. Based on the rules of our society, we can't put people in jail because we think they deserve it..."
And I don't want to think that people do bad things to children - but they do. If Casey was innocent she should have taken the stand and defended herself. She's guilty, so she didn't. I've seen people go free when the prosecution had a signed, taped confession....video of said person committing the crime, and TONS of forensic evidence....all because some individual didn't dot a fucking *I* on form '234'...the law has long since protected the innocent. The law is now protecting the guilty.
And innocents go to jail everyday, with much less evidence presented.. and guess what!! Sometimes the guilty actually do get their time! We had a big case of a guy who most likely murdered a young woman here. He may even be a serial killer, from things they uncovered about him. He was seen taking this young woman from a bar on tape, and she was never seen again. He has a history of violence on women. He is now in jail for LIFE because of an attempted murder on another woman, a couple of years before this woman went missing. He got LIFE for attempted murder, but guess what. No body found, no proof he killed the other woman, only that he was the last one seen with her. The only evidence is that "bar" video. So yes, we are so happy that he got life, no parole on the "attempted murder case", which had the legal system tried that case when they should have, he never would have been out to KILL this other woman. The system DOES work many times. Sometimes it doesn't. It will never be a perfect system. It's a human made institution.
Where is the freaking outrage when this crap happens everyday?? Kids are abused, kidnapped, murdered... they just aren't plastered all over our tv's. Where is everyone's outrage for our court systems everyday? Where is our outrage over laws that don't even protect our children everyday? It seems the outrage only comes out when it's big enough for someone like Nancy Grace to take on. For us here, it was local, but for most people, it wasn't. There are things that totally suck about our justice system. But it's all we have. And since I don't want to live in a "police state" society, I guess I have to live with it. And hope justice is found in some other way.