Unfixable glitch in criminal justice.

in criminal •  3 years ago 

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I'm coming to believe that the greatest glitch in criminal justice is our inability to accept that we lack perfect knowledge and perfect objectivity. This also hurts because I don't think that it's a fixable glitch.

I don't think that's a common thing anymore that juries are being stacked with racists who will find Tom Robinson guilty of rape regardless of the evidence. I don't think that Anthony Broadwater was wrongly convicted of rape by a racist jury. I think he was convicted by a jury full of normal people who still think that "beyond a reasonable doubt" can be translated into "more likely than not to my mind".

I see it all the time and, in all honesty, I'm horrified to think of about eighty percent of the people on my news feed being on a jury. It's not uncommon anymore that a picture of a person in a MAGA hat would lead people to figure, "Even if he's not guilty of murder, he's guilty of something; so, I'll convict." We're living in a world where feelings don't care about your facts.

Sometimes being dispassionate is the only way to act morally. That's so much of what should go into the thought process of any and all of us when we serve on a jury. Too many people are willing to vote guilty when they're 51% sure and too few people are willing to vote not guilty when they realize that they're only 85% sure.

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