okay have you ever served as a juror
never i've never been served on the jury never been called up in a jury although some of my friends have been jurors
uh-huh
i never have either
you haven't huh if you were uh what do you think about the whole concept of a trial by your peers
well i think it's a good idea i think our justice system needs a major overhaul and i'm not sure what needs to be done to fix it but i think they've got a lot of problems
i think the major thing they need to correct is how long it takes something to get to jury and to get to trial
true
and i don't know if that's just a pure volumes number or or what but uh
sometimes i think the jury is ignorant in the facts of law and how things should be determined and they're too easily swayed by their emotion
yeah i think that's true
hence is possible error as you can see in all the ironsides
TV shows
yeah do you would you prefer all trials by a judge
no i think there are certain things that uh the jury can determine as far as uh guilty or not guilty but as far as the affixing affixing affixing of punishment and fines and things of that nature
i don't know if that is best left up to the jury to decide to award you know two point two million dollar kind of settlement versus a judge knowing you know it's true that you know this may be sad and all that thing but uh
the jury i think is best in most cases suited for determination of guilt and innocence but not the award of of penalties and fines and punishment
yeah i would agree with that i think you're right i think they sometimes get carried away by the circumstances and make huge settlements thinking well it's only going to cost the insurance company and
um-hum
that's true but uh i do like the idea of the jury being the the the people who decide in the matter of uh if it's a jail term versus life and death
uh-huh
you know the death penalty and such
if they give them all the information i don't know when it comes to sentencing phase i guess they tell them if a guy if the person has a previous record and stuff
uh-huh
sometimes it seems like during the trial part the jury's not you know misses some of the best evidence because they make them leave and
right
the judge decides whether or not they should hear it
yeah uh it it it's kind of difficult and i guess the whole system is set up to rather let uh some guilty people go free than to put an innocent person in in jail
right
although you still hear about those occasionally
yeah
do you think the verdict should be completely unanimous by the jury
um i don't know i you know i heard a very interesting and maybe it's just the TV show or movie i was watching they were going through a trial
and i think it was like on one of the the documentary TV shows where they ask for the the verdict by the jury
uh-huh
and they went by each one saying guilty or innocent guilty or innocent
uh-huh
and they took it more as just like a majority
oh
so i i
some of them disagree i mean some of them said one way and some the other
exactly but they took you know whatever the majority was so i didn't know if that was just something for drama or that's truly the way it is i always thought it had to be unanimous
i think it does have to be unanimous
but uh
rather interesting
i know they can poll a jury make sure everybody agrees with what they said the verdict was but
i thought that they all had to agree or else they it was a hung jury
uh-huh i did i did also
and
yeah i think i don't know how i feel about that i think maybe uh
majority might be sufficient
uh-huh
it's hard to say though i
what about in international
trials do you think they should have a jury there i think that would be kind of interesting
oh
yeah i hadn't thought about international trials at all
i guess the the problem with that is there's no true authority in any kind of international verdicts
right
like you know the old day with the rack we they're going to say okay you're guilty and you have to pay Kuwait four million dollars well whose going to really make them
yeah
nobody
yeah
so
but i think it would be kind of interesting to incorporate that concept of you know people from different countries
uh in as international law also
yeah i think maybe they'd need to be more knowledgeable though than just your average Joe off the street
um-hum
for something like that because of the cultural differences
right
things like that
i don't know how what it would take to be come up with a true perfect
system or if one exists but
yeah what about uniform sentencing
uh is that the crime and it's already false due to some chart and determine the punishment or
right yeah like if you're convicted of a certain crime you automatically get so many years it's not a discretionary thing
um-hum i think there should be a core minimum that they get but uh
i guess there should be some flexibility because every situation may be unique that the judge can either increase that or keep it just at its minimum things of that nature
yeah
i
i wish that when they sentence someone if they're going to sentence him to five years then make him serve five years
yeah that serves a kind of if they're i guess uh if you sentence someone to life life is only forty nine years something like that
you know
yeah i
and i guess you're eligible after twenty seven for parole even though you're in for life
yeah and sometimes those people are are young enough they can still get out and cause a lot of trouble
yeah although i guess it's your you want them to rehabilitate and become better rather than sitting in there and being a drain all the time
yeah i don't believe that very often happens
no because uh inside the jail there i don't think there's no real rehabilitation it just
i don't think so either In fact i think they end up worse because the conditions are so bad
yes it's another war zone
yeah
but
who knows
i think i think maybe they ought to just be punished with some some kind of real punishment like hard labor for a shorter length of time you know actually make them do something that's not pleasant
i agree get them out there
and do it and get it over with and get back in the you know world and not spend so much time sitting around letting the bad influences of the other ones rub off on them and
sure they should have them go out and doing stuff cleaning up or picking up dirt or weeds or who knows what something for the for the state since the state is paying for them they should get some kind of kind of work out of them
yeah
yeah something besides license plates and tiddlywinks
exactly
yeah
trading their lives for cigarettes
yeah
those kinds of things
well good
well i think that covers it
i think so
it was nice talking to you
nice talking to you also
um bye
have a wonderful Easter
you too bye
bye
