Justice and (our) humanity

[Kulindahr]

You could correct indifferent prosecutors who cannot tell or cannot care to tell mens rea from diminished capacity.

Diminished capacity is treated as evasion, which is taken to indicate guilt. Thus it's easier to convict the mentally ill.

[Kulindahr]

When the justice system is a theatre catering to the mob's prejudices so that the "actors" can do well at the next election, it says a lot for the Commonwealth practice of appointing judges instead of letting popular opinion hold sway.

I could go for a professional judgeship, subject to citizen recall but not chosen by vote.

[JockBoy87]

How many people want dangerous people with diminished capacity out on the street? Perhaps there will come a time when it will be possible to ascertain mental illness accurately, predict accurately the probability of future violence or crime, and reliably cure or control it. Until then, there will be little support for making diminished capacity or mental illnessa defense.

Kulindahr didn't say streets.

[JockBoy87]

Diminished capacity is treated as evasion, which is taken to indicate guilt. Thus it's easier to convict the mentally ill.

If only jury nullification were a more widely known concept.

[Benvolio]

If only jury nullification were a more widely known concept.

The most frequent form of jury nullification happens when the jury disregards the instruction that proof of guilt must be beyond a reasonable doubt.

[JockBoy87]

The most frequent form of jury nullification happens when the jury disregards the instruction that proof of guilt must be beyond a reasonable doubt.

Point taken.

[JockBoy87]

^^^

Then again, due process in the 5th and 14th amendments are understood as of 1895 to mean presumption of innocence. Juries cannot nullify the US Constitution, but they often do.

[Kulindahr]

Kulindahr didn't say streets.

Thanks for paying attention to what I actually said -- making up things someone thinks I said or should have said seems to be a common hobby here lately.

[Kulindahr]

The most frequent form of jury nullification happens when the jury disregards the instruction that proof of guilt must be beyond a reasonable doubt.

Yep. Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Adams would all be anguished. That legal maxim, in Jefferson's version, should be on the wall of every jury room in the country:

Better a thousand guilty walk free than one innocent person be punished.

[Kulindahr]

^^^

Then again, due process in the 5th and 14th amendments are understood as of 1895 to mean presumption of innocence. Juries cannot nullify the US Constitution, but they often do.

As do prosecutors and judges when they play games with the law.

[Benvolio]

Thanks for paying attention to what I actually said -- making up things someone thinks I said or should have said seems to be a common hobby here lately.

No one said that you said streets. Don't get paranoid on us.