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I've heard it said that, "everyone has their day in court."

Now, I've been in a few courtrooms in my time. Some as a 'party' to a case, and others as a paralegal, working on behalf of a client's interest.

I did mostly Family Law and Personal Injury cases. But I've been before a Social Security(SSI) Appeals Judge for a client, that I actually got to do the representation on. One need not to be a member of the bar to do that in Federal Administrative Matters. And on one such occasion, one of my cases went as far as THE Social Security (SSI) Appeals Board, in Falls Church, VA. They said my client had proved up her claim at the lower hearing and over turned the denial of benefits.

I have worked some criminal cases, in particular, one murder case.

And in those criminal cases, I dealt with the jury--in selection, challenges for cause, as well, premptory challenges. I got to select the jury instructions that were to be argued to the judge--as to whether certain instructions would to be used or not.

I had one case of 'jury nullification'! In that despite being 'instructed' by the judge, NOT to consider the validity of the law, but instead, based on the facts and evidence presented, to APPLY the law as he instructed. THE JURY DID NOT FOLLOW THAT INSTRUCTION. They came back with a 'not guilty' verdict.

And furthermore, in that case, the foreman read a statement before the court and on the record, about how the jury had concluded that the matter had been brought out of 'political necessity', to the detremit of the accused. He stated their verdict was based on the application of the law.

The jury was 'polled', and each member of the panel confirmed their verdict as 'truth' as stated on the 'Verdict Form'.

Folks, there was no appeal available to the prosecutor. Not even for 'jury misconduct. The jury had spoken and 'jeapordy' had already attached, back when the jury was sworn.

I think of that case often. And in doing so, I think I saw one part of America that stood the test of all the screwed up factors that corruupt our system of Justice. A system that promotes 'guilt' rather than 'Not Guilty Until Proven Guilty'!

While thinking about the situation of America tonite, I found this:

http://www.fija.org/index.php?page=staticpage&id=1

And, here is a portion from the 'About us' page (2nd Paragraph):

"Jurors, as the representatives of the people, hold no personal agenda during any trial and most certainly not the government's agenda. Let us not forget that the prosecutors, judges, arresting officers - and the forensic investigators in most cases - are all a part of and receive their paychecks from government, with personal power bases to build and personal careers to protect through the "productivity" of successful prosecutions resulting in convictions. Jurors have no such stake in the outcome, and are, in fact, the only truly objective individuals in the courtroom."

Take a look, would you? This may be your/our only hope someday.

Veritas numquam perit - Truth never perishes!

CDJ
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A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what they are made for.