The Jury Got It Right
I don’t know if Casey Anthony murdered her little girl and unless you were sitting in that courtroom every day, all day, and heard all of the testimony, you don’t either. And, it seems that the jury, the people who did spend every day listening to the evidence, are not sure themselves. Which is why they did what they swore an oath to do. They weighed the evidence, followed the law, abided by the Judge’s instructions and found her not guilty. Sorry everyone, they got it right and it was a courageous decision for them to take.
From everything I have seen and heard, I have to give the jury the benefit of the doubt. They came to the conclusion that the prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony murdered her daughter. Not only did they reach this conclusion but all twelve of them did and it seems they did so rather quickly but still took two days to talk it over and make sure they were all on the same page. There was no dissent at all. None.
Sorry, these are not twelve people who are all escapees from a mental institution or morons with no common sense. They are twelve courageous people who could have taken the easy way out. I have no doubt that while they deliberated, the subject of how unpopular this decision was going to be came up. Instead of giving in to the drooling, knuckle-dragging mob, which would have been the easy, popular thing to do, they did what they swore to do and are legally supposed to do under these circumstances. Hold the prosecution to its burden to prove the defendant, who is presumed innocent, to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
A lot of people are making stupid statements that the jury was filled with idiots and had no common sense. Really? Did the burden of proof get changed to ‘if common sense says she did it, then send her to death row’? If so, I must have missed that. For people who think like this, who are the real idiots here? Go find a mirror for your answer.
What everyone needs to do here is something that most people hate to do. Something they go to great lengths to avoid at all cost. Something that they fear above almost all else. They need to slow down, take a deep breath, relax, and this is the hard part, try to allow a rational thought to get past the barricades, under the radar and enter their tiny little heads.
There is a lot of emotionally based outrage going on in this country, almost entirely from people who have no idea what they are talking about, (why do I see the face of Nancy Grace here?) because the rule of law was followed in this case. Apparently if the mob is angry enough, we should throw the Constitution out the window and let the angry mob decide these things. In fact, why bother with a trial at all? Do we really need all of those silly, nuisance amendments? The fourth amendment right against unreasonable searches? The fifth amendment right against self incrimination? The sixth amendment right to counsel? Why bother with this nonsense. The presumption of innocence. What kind of silliness is that? Presumption of innocence! Everyone knew she was guilty. Common sense (that’s my personal favorite) made it clear that she did it. Everyone knows the judicial system is totally out of whack and we would be better off if we just let the police decide who is guilty and who is innocent. It worked just fine for Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and Communist China and North Korea. Who wouldn’t want to live in one of those paradises? Be careful what you wish for.
This is a classic example of why I never follow trials through the media and neither should you. You are getting the information filtered by reporters and editors who are not getting all of the information, and very likely have no idea what they are talking about. They don’t even know what information is important and only tell you the things they believe you should hear. They let their own biases and prejudices get in the way and have no obligation to the law the way a jury does. And, sorry, watching it on TV, even if you saw it all, is not the same as sitting in that courtroom and seeing the entire trial. Plus, when was the last time the media in this country got anything right? On a good day, a good day not a normal day but one of their better ones, they manage to get the sports scores correct and little else. This is who we have faith in to report a trial and base our conclusions on what they tell us? Please.
Then there is the CSI TV show influence that has taken on a life to explain what simple minded, gullible nitwits all twelve (and at least one of the alternates) must be. They have been watching too much CSI and expect DNA to prove guilt or innocence. This would be laughable if it wasn’t so insulting. It assumes everyone is the same simple minded dolt as the simple minded dolts who say this. We are so mind conditioned by TV we cannot set that aside when we enter a jury box. We cannot tell the difference between a TV show and reality. These are the same people who think ‘Leave it to Beaver’ was a documentary and the movie ‘Bambi’ a nature show. Plus, like everything that seems to be associated with this case, is there any evidence of this?
Another head shaker is this idiocy that the judicial system is totally messed up and needs to be completely reformed. Really? How do they come to that conclusion? By the same irrational, non-thinking, emotionally driven thought processes. Because we have had OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson and now Casey Anthony. All obviously guilty and yet got off because of lenient Judges, tricky lawyers and gullible jurors. It is as clear as can be that this leniency has ruined the American Criminal Justice system and it is totally out of control. Or so goes the ‘thinking’.
Three cases in the last fifteen years and this is what the mob cites as ‘proof’ that the system is broken. Three out of how many millions of criminal prosecutions done during those years? If the system is so broken, so rife with lenient Judges (obviously they are all simple minded fools), tricky lawyers (these are the ones Shakespeare was referring to) and gullible jurors (they must breed them at the same nut house), then why is that every jail, county workhouse, prison of every kind is overflowing in this country and has been for so long that we have to let some out to make room for the next batch? We can’t build jail space fast enough to house them all but, according to the self-appointed experts, the system needs a total overhaul because of the three aforementioned cases. Again, maybe a deep breath and a little calm, rational thinking is in order here.
What is really going on here is what normally goes on with almost every issue that comes up. People believing what they want and don’t let rational thinking get in the way. Normally, and gratefully, this is normally confined to liberals but, this verdict has brought it out in people who should know better.
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