Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Juror Almost Disqualified for Knowing Truth

The US Supreme Court has three justices who would reverse a murder conviction because a juror was aware of some factual crime statistics.

From their opinion:

In 2018, a jury convicted Love of capital murder in the course of a robbery that occurred in 2015. Prior to trial, prospective members of the jury filled out a questionnaire that included the following questions:

"68. Do you sometimes personally harbor bias against members of certain races or ethnic groups?

"69. Do you believe that some races and/or ethnic groups tend to be more violent than others?"

To the first question, No. 68, the prospective juror at issue answered, "No." But to the second question, No. 69, he answered, "Yes." He explained that "[s]tatistics show more violent crimes are committed by certain races. I believe in statistics."

The opinion makes no attempt to argue that the crime statistics are false. Only that awareness should disqualify a juror, and reverse a conviction.

This is all you need to know about Democrat appointments to the court. In 2016, Democrats almost got a 5-4 court majority, but the Senate Republicans stalled it. They saved us from the above reasoning becoming law.

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