PLEASE CONTRIBUTE
Freepathon Day 46
Posted on 08/15/2011 10:39:12 PM PDT by clearwatermaillady
On July 5, 2011, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first degree murder in the death of her daughter Caylee Marie Anthony, at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Florida . The only charges she received were 4 charges of false information to a law enforcement officer, all misdemeanor charges. The sentence for this was 4 years in prison, $4,000 fine for four counts of falsifying police reports. Since she had been in jail since October 14, 2008 and she was given time off for good behavior, she was released from jail on, July 17, 2011. She walked out of the jail booking center with her attorney, Jose Baez, at about 12:10 a.m. Escorted by an armed contingent of law enforcement officers.
I believe it is time for Florida to make some changes to its Jury Reform rules. I believe making changes could help jurors with issues they have about the cases and in return it will also help jurors be more informed when it comes to making a verdict. I would like to propose a two part rule as part of a comprehensive Jury rules package for Florida's criminal and civil trial proceedings.
Some States have already implemented similar, but not exactly the same rules into their Jury Reform, and I feel that Florida could benefit ultimately from these changes.
Here is my proposed Jury Reform rule for the State of Florida called CAYLEE'S RULE, in honor of Caylee Marie Anthony.
Jurors, including alternates, are permitted to discuss the evidence among themselves in the jury room during recesses from the trial when all are present, as long as they reserve judgment about the outcome of the case until deliberations commence. The court shall remind jurors not to discuss the case with anyone other than fellow jurors during the trial.
Jurors can ask questions of witnesses during the trial. Once all Attorneys have finished their cross-examintion of a witnesss, then jurors will have an opportunity to quesition the witness to clarify any of the testimony they have given.
sounds good to me though I expect to be corrected by someone here who has more than the third grade education I worked hard to obtain
It’s a very bad idea to change trial law because we don’t like a verdict. The prosecution didn’t prove it’s case to jury’s satisfaction, and as much as that disappoints me, the jury did the right thing.
Did you register for Free Republic just to post this? Your link contains petitions advocating some really horrible, oppressive things.
ZOT?
“it’s” should be “its”. Violation of my own pet peeve
THE change.org itself? The very taproot of Obamanian hopenchange?
Two things:
1. I am completely against your idea.
2. You would be a lot better off posting this kind of stuff during the daytime hours when the majority of FReepers are actually awake and logged in, rather than the four of us that are here now.
“It’s a very bad idea to change trial law because we don’t like a verdict.”
Truer words were never spoken.
I agree with you completely. It's a horrible idea. Being from Los Angeles and busy trying to eek out a living in Obama's America, I didn't follow this case. So I have no opinion on the verdict. However, as a genuine Constitutional conservative, I believe our right to trial by a jury of our peers is sacrosanct. So is a jury's right to deliver whatever verdict it deems appropriate after having listened to all the evidence and the judge's instructions.
The Constitution does not guarantee that all juries will always deliver popular verdicts, or even correct verdicts. To tamper with the law in order to try to force verdicts that suit public opinion would be legalized mob rule. I lived through the OJ Simpson trial here in L.A., and know without a shadow of doubt that jury got it flat out wrong. Yet it would never occur to me to try to force a popular outcome by fixing (in the mob sense) laws to change the jury system.
I disagree. You had it right the first time. "It's" is a contraction for "It is", necessitating an apostrophe.
I hate to admit it, but you are exactly right. As much as OJ’s verdict disturbed me, at the time I blamed outright racism, Casey Anthony was a complete shock. I said after the verdict that the only 12 people in the country who didn’t know who killed that little girl were sitting on that jury.
But I wasn’t on that jury. I wasn’t in the courtroom, I didn’t hear the evidence presented. I’m not a lawyer but I think that the State may have reached a bit too far, not the jury’s fault.
Read the comments under the petition. They are all pure emotion. No regard for the law or Constitution or logic. A virtual snapshot of ignorance. It gives me relief that we do not live in a democracy (yet).
You are looking at the wrong instance of the word “it’s”. The guy was correct. He violated his pet peeve.
Afterwards, we got a lot of feedback from the prosecutor and idiots who followed it in the media that the defendant was "obviously guilty".
All I know is that the state proved none of the four elements of the offense and we followed the judge's instructions (which were excellent) to the letter.
A properly instructed and dutiful jury isn't there to figure out what "everyone knows". They aren't even there to figure out if the person "really did it", because "it" has a strict definition in statute, which the state has to prove.
It is extremely foolish to mess around with this system. It's clear to me that the State of Florida did not meet its burden in the Casey Anthony case, and the Oprah America solution of a "Caylee's Law" is just one more step towards the loss of our Liberty.
Awful ideas. The prosecutor failed big-time...simple time as that.
Ah, you REALLY believe that? Disgusting. The jury in this case makes a box of Pet Rocks™ look like rocket scientists.
How about we just scrap juries all together and let Nancy Grace determine guilt or innocence?
The jury was lazy and stupid. There was enough prima facie evidence of manslaughter in this case that to not convict Casey of manslaughter was pure madness/incompetence.
Yeah, I’m sure the OP will clarify why they chose to post something from there, right after registering. Must be a good reason ;-)
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