JBeukema
Rookie
- Banned
- #1
What, exactly does and should this mean? Is a middle-class white woman the peer of a poor black man from Detroit's inner city? Is a black lesbian woman the peer of a neonazi? Are you and I peers of Rupert Madoff?
What if the poor black man is accused of robbing the CEO of GM, the neonazi is accused of killing an interracial gay couple, and- well, we all know about Madoff now.
By what stretch are these persons the peers of the defendant? In each case, is there not reason to suspect they have motivation to declare the defendant guilty regardless of reality? And yet would not a true jury of their peers be suspected to find them not guilty despite any evidence against them?
What then, is a jury of one's peers, and is such a thing necessarily a good thing?
What if the poor black man is accused of robbing the CEO of GM, the neonazi is accused of killing an interracial gay couple, and- well, we all know about Madoff now.
By what stretch are these persons the peers of the defendant? In each case, is there not reason to suspect they have motivation to declare the defendant guilty regardless of reality? And yet would not a true jury of their peers be suspected to find them not guilty despite any evidence against them?
What then, is a jury of one's peers, and is such a thing necessarily a good thing?