How's that going to work at the state level?
Mesa County Colorado - Belinda and Tina's big adventure
-
raison de arizona
- Posts: 18497
- Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:21 am
- Location: Nothing, Arizona
- Occupation: bit twiddler
- Verified: ✔️ he/him/his
Mesa County Colorado - Belinda and Tina's big adventure
States don't have rights, especially Colorado. Just ask SCOTUS. Apparently.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
Mesa County Colorado - Belinda and Tina's big adventure
She has a long way to go to match a local case here. A guy was in jail for 10 years awaiting trial for murder.
His first defense attorney was the father of one of the investigating officers and cross examined him in the preliminary hearing. After refusing a plea deal, his case went through two judges, three prosecutors, four sets of defense lawyers, and nine scheduled trial dates. He finally went to trial and got a life sentence, even though his co-defendant got a trial within 2 years and was acquitted.
But wait, there's more: A new district attorney who had once represented one of the co-defendants was elected in February 2017, requiring the case to be transferred to the attorney general’s office. At that point, the prosecution dropped the death penalty from the case. Finally, on September 19, the trial was again held up amid allegations that some members of the newly empaneled jury of 11 whites and one black may have had improper contact with people connected to the case.
Several years ago, I was called for jury duty. After excusing the folks who can't serve at all, they just take groups alphabetically to create a panel from which the lawyers will select a jury. My group was extra large (like 60 people when they usually get about 30 from which to pick 12). But this particular case was only about sentencing. The person had been found guilty of murder years before. He'd had 5 (FIVE!) former sentencing trials before this one. All of those former adjudications were thrown out for various reasons including improper contact with jurors and racist issues with the DA at the time (several juries in the former sentencing cases had every Black person excused). We were not told this at the time - I found it out later.
We had to fill out lengthy questionnaires at this point (favorite tv shows, view about drugs, lots of stuff). Then we were questioned orally (they ask a question and you raise your hand if it applies to you). It took most of the day so we came back the next morning. Then they wanted to question some of us privately...I was one of those folks. We (the judge, all the lawyers, the defendant, the court reporter) all shuffled into the jury room where they asked me questions. I saw the word "NO" written at the top of my questionnaire, so Idk why they wanted more info. The DA wanted the death penalty and I am against that...and said so in open court and again when they questioned me in private...including wanting to know why (I'm personally against it, and my Christian denomination is against it). At this point I didn't know anything about the case or former sentencing hearings.
Four of us ended up getting excused before they went any further (they still had to choose the 12). We went to pick up our checks to leave and chatted a little. Our little foursome was 1 WM, 1WF, 1BM, 1BF. We were all anti-death penalty. I was kind of sad that out of 60 random people, only 4 could never vote to sentence someone to death. I learned later that this guy was very low IQ, lived in terrible circumstances, was abused his whole life, just a sad story. I do believe he shot and killed the people for which he was convicted, but boy our system is so screwed up.
His first defense attorney was the father of one of the investigating officers and cross examined him in the preliminary hearing. After refusing a plea deal, his case went through two judges, three prosecutors, four sets of defense lawyers, and nine scheduled trial dates. He finally went to trial and got a life sentence, even though his co-defendant got a trial within 2 years and was acquitted.
But wait, there's more: A new district attorney who had once represented one of the co-defendants was elected in February 2017, requiring the case to be transferred to the attorney general’s office. At that point, the prosecution dropped the death penalty from the case. Finally, on September 19, the trial was again held up amid allegations that some members of the newly empaneled jury of 11 whites and one black may have had improper contact with people connected to the case.
Several years ago, I was called for jury duty. After excusing the folks who can't serve at all, they just take groups alphabetically to create a panel from which the lawyers will select a jury. My group was extra large (like 60 people when they usually get about 30 from which to pick 12). But this particular case was only about sentencing. The person had been found guilty of murder years before. He'd had 5 (FIVE!) former sentencing trials before this one. All of those former adjudications were thrown out for various reasons including improper contact with jurors and racist issues with the DA at the time (several juries in the former sentencing cases had every Black person excused). We were not told this at the time - I found it out later.
We had to fill out lengthy questionnaires at this point (favorite tv shows, view about drugs, lots of stuff). Then we were questioned orally (they ask a question and you raise your hand if it applies to you). It took most of the day so we came back the next morning. Then they wanted to question some of us privately...I was one of those folks. We (the judge, all the lawyers, the defendant, the court reporter) all shuffled into the jury room where they asked me questions. I saw the word "NO" written at the top of my questionnaire, so Idk why they wanted more info. The DA wanted the death penalty and I am against that...and said so in open court and again when they questioned me in private...including wanting to know why (I'm personally against it, and my Christian denomination is against it). At this point I didn't know anything about the case or former sentencing hearings.
Four of us ended up getting excused before they went any further (they still had to choose the 12). We went to pick up our checks to leave and chatted a little. Our little foursome was 1 WM, 1WF, 1BM, 1BF. We were all anti-death penalty. I was kind of sad that out of 60 random people, only 4 could never vote to sentence someone to death. I learned later that this guy was very low IQ, lived in terrible circumstances, was abused his whole life, just a sad story. I do believe he shot and killed the people for which he was convicted, but boy our system is so screwed up.
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark Twain
-
keith
- Posts: 3791
- Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:23 pm
- Location: The Swamp in Victorian Oz
- Occupation: Retired Computer Systems Analyst Project Manager Super Coder
- Verified: ✅lunatic
Mesa County Colorado - Belinda and Tina's big adventure
Are you trying to ascribe logicical awareness of jurisdictional boundaries to these rwo light bulbs?
Has everybody heard about the bird?