Posted on 08/13/2013 7:40:08 PM PDT by NotYourAverageDhimmi
The New Mexico Supreme Court is cautioning the state's trial courts that citizens who don't speak English have the right to serve on juries.
The court issued the admonition in a ruling that upholds an Albuquerque man's convictions for murder and other crimes in the bludgeoning death of his girlfriend and a subsequent armed robbery and stabbing.
Michael Samora's appeal argued that his convictions should be reversed because the Bernalillo County court excused a Spanish-speaking prospective juror who had trouble understanding English.
The Supreme Court says it agrees with that argument but also says Samora's defense needed to object during the trial but didn't.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that the state's Constitution "shall never be restricted, abridged or impaired on account of … (the) inability to speak, read or write the English or Spanish languages."
The ruling issued Monday tells judges and lawyers that they must use reasonable efforts to protect the rights of non-English speaking citizens to serve on juries.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Since when is jury duty “a right”?
Okay, I’ll answer my own question: probably since it was decided with the George Zimmerman case that the deceased had the right for the defendant to be tried by a jury of the deceased’s peers.
Broken as in FUBAR.
11,000 words?
Ain’t that like 40+ pages, double-spaced?
Something like that. My fifty-chapter novels run about 260,000 words, so 11,000 words is about two chapters worth.
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