CuriousRefugee
@CuriousRefugee@lemmy.ml
- Comment on YSK about Jury Nullification, if you're an American and you don't, look it up. 2 days ago:
I replied to the other thread before you, but it’s a good point that atrociously unjust laws are good targets for jury nullification. Bathroom laws are a good example, although I fear that we wouldn’t necessarily be on a jury where all other 11 members agree with us that it is an obvious violation of a trans person’s rights, sadly. Especially in the states where those laws exist. A hung jury, where not everybody agrees is better than a conviction, but a “not guilty” verdict can’t be re-tried (in almost all circumstances).
- Comment on YSK about Jury Nullification, if you're an American and you don't, look it up. 2 days ago:
Okay, that’s fair. I was thinking more along the lines of when the law is questionable, not patently unjust , as you put it.
And Jim Crow laws are a good example, as are sodomy laws that essentially outlawed gay relationships for a long time in many states (struck down by Lawrence v. Texas, but not until 2003!). Usually when people think of jury nullification (outside of the more recent obvious case), they’re thinking along the lines of drug laws, which are often grey. Both of those examples probably DO warrant nullification.
That being said, I think it’s unlikely that a case which can get 9 jurors to oppose it based on an unjust law would occur in a state where that law exists. Those sodomy laws I referenced were mostly only present in conservative states by 2003. However, federal laws might be more susceptible, as a state that’s the opposite political ideology of the current US government could have a jury like that.
But I’ll concede the point that atrociously immoral or unjust laws could and should be targets for jury nullification. It’s a good addition.
- Comment on YSK about Jury Nullification, if you're an American and you don't, look it up. 3 days ago:
This is really important. You can disagree with laws, but that feels like a terrible reason to nullify a legitimate guilty decision.
In addition, sentencing is (usually) separate from conviction and is the judge’s decision, although a jury can recommend a sentence. If someone is found guilty of theft for stealing a loaf of bread, they’re not going to get 20 years in jail except in musicals.
IMO, nullification should be used as an absolute last resort. Have a sympathetic defendant accused of second degree murder? Knock it down to a lower-level manslaughter and find them guilty. The sentencing of that might have a low maximum.
There are only a few rare problems that actually need nullification. It (generally) shouldn’t just be used for laws that you disagree with. One such problem is mandatory sentencing minimums. If someone steals that load of bread and they’ve already been convicted twice for theft or other crimes, they may be subject to things like 3-strike laws and get a sentence that is WAY more than they deserve, and the judge can’t do anything about it. The judge might feel that they deserve to give only 20 hours of community service as a sentence, but they legally have to sentence the convicted to 6 months in prison. Nullification is probably warranted there. Someone found with 1.25 ounces of marijuana in a state where only 1 ounce is legal, so they get charged with a drug distribution felony? And the judge/prosecutor refuses to lower the charge? Maybe find them not guilty. But it should be the last resort, not the first option.
- Comment on Dune, Lost Eden And MegaRace Composer Stéphane Picq Has Passed Away Aged 59 | Time Extension 2 weeks ago:
I was so thrilled when he finally got the rights back to the Dune music and remastered and rereleased it. Sad news, rest in peace
- Comment on Dune, Lost Eden And MegaRace Composer Stéphane Picq Has Passed Away Aged 59 | Time Extension 2 weeks ago:
One of the best! Emotion. Control.
- Comment on *automatic window noises* 1 month ago:
“Suck, suck, suck!”
- Comment on BACK IT UP 3 months ago:
Damn that FDA and their suppression of…*checks list…sunshine?
Was the solar eclipse an inside job?!?
- Comment on Yep, it's me 3 months ago:
I recently taught my 11-year-old nephew “how planes fly.” A bit oversimplified, of course, but words like camber and lift and circulation were tossed around along with Bernoulli’s principle.
- Comment on Get good. 4 months ago:
Oh wow, deep cut. I had that buried somewhere in the
- Comment on Wordle 5 months ago:
No thanks, I’m not into Pokemon
- Comment on Openblack is a an attempt to recreate lost god game Black & White in a modern, open source game engine 5 months ago:
The song that the sailors sang in the original B&W is stuck in my head to this day. “Ohhhh, we’ve got this notion that we’d quite like to sail the ocean…”
- Comment on Are there any good critical thinking courses online? 5 months ago:
They do have courses, but there’s also a lot of good quizzes to evaluate your critical thinking skills at ClearerThinking.org
- Comment on Only Honk 6 months ago:
I dropped my Netflix subscription and just spend hours a day on OnlyHonk. Don’t judge!
- Comment on Ironing 8 months ago:
I don’t usually wear dress shirts to work except for big presentations, but how on earth does it only take you two minutes? Are you only counting active time ironing? Or ironing 10 shirts in one session and giving the per-shirt average?
Start to finish, from getting out the iron, plugging in to start up, setting up my ironing board and laying out a shirt, waiting to heat up, ironing the shirt plus flipping it around and ironing again, then putting everything away after the iron cools down, it’s usually like 15-20 minutes for me. Maybe you can do something else when the iron is heating up, but it still seems like at least 10-15 minutes. Still a short enough period to not be a huge hassle once a week, but way too much to do every morning.