Appellate Law

Another reason why a right to a jury trial matters

By S. COTUS

Injustice Anywhere makes a point about the right to a jury trial.  It is possible to argue the law to the jury.  Now, why does this matter?  When children of the poor are arrested because they are not at their prep schools, in many states, they are at the mercy of a judge.  The judge can come up with all sorts of reason why the prosecutor?s "facts" fit the statute.  But, if a poor child have a right to a jury trial, he gets to makes those same arguments to a jury.  The jury, of course, doesn?t have any interest in convicting or acquitting the poor piece of crap that we call a defendant.   Indeed, they get paid either way, and they frequently don't know whether or not the defendant is one of "those people."  They certainly have not been indoctrinated in three years of lawschool into all the ways that we are better than "those people."

The judge, on the other hand, does: since his rulings on a motion for acquittal generally have to be in tune with his rulings on a motion to dismiss.  Now, if you are a prosecutor that is charged with clearing the streets of street urchins (or, as some say ?Public School Swine?) this makes your job harder, but hey, you still get paid. 

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on September 17, 2008 (boomark / email).