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To: Red Badger

If I am on a jury, I want to hear from the defendant, especially since much of the decision might hang on his state of mind that night. I wish there was a special rule where each juror could ask two questions of the defendant after the lawyers took their shots.


10 posted on 11/10/2021 8:15:13 AM PST by Savage Rider
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To: Savage Rider

I am listening. Unless something twists up on him, I think he’s doing an excellent job, and seems to be a very wholesome young guy with good intentions. JMHO


15 posted on 11/10/2021 8:17:57 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: Savage Rider
If I am on a jury, I want to hear from the defendant, especially since much of the decision might hang on his state of mind that night. I wish there was a special rule where each juror could ask two questions of the defendant after the lawyers took their shots.

I understand the urge, but that is why the judge is supposed to instruct the jury not to consider that. Defendants have a right not to testify in their own trials for a reason.

There's a move to allow jurors to ask questions, at least in civil cases, but I think it's a terrible idea. Jurors frequently want to ask questions that are prohibited by the rules of evidence, or are irrelevant to the actual issues they are asked to resolve. Let the lawyers do their jobs.

24 posted on 11/10/2021 8:22:56 AM PST by The Pack Knight
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To: Savage Rider
In most state you can ask questions.

Simply write them down and pass them to the bailiff and he gives them to the judge who asks them.

73 posted on 11/10/2021 9:01:31 AM PST by crz
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To: Savage Rider

A defendants refusal to testify is a RIGHT…

The impetus of the state is to PROVE its case, it is not on the defendant to prove his innocence.

If you need to hear from the defendant to make your verdict then the state didn’t prove its case, period.


196 posted on 11/10/2021 10:25:20 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Savage Rider

Exactly

The second I hear ANYTHING like ‘No comment’, or ‘I take the 5th’, or or someone doesn’t testify I am going to go with ‘guilty’.

Never ever going to trust someone who can’t explain themselves for themselves.


417 posted on 11/10/2021 1:42:08 PM PST by Republican in occupied CA (I will not give up on my native State! Here I was born, here I fight and die!!)
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