why don't you go ahead and start
okay well i think the court systems could stand some improvement uh
trial by jury is good but a lot of time it
in in a lot of cases
uh is circumstantial evidence that that convicts a person which i don't think is all the time good because
sometimes it's hard to get all the facts and to prove a person innocent
i mean prove a person guilty if you don't really know or you don't really have a eyewitness
and how can you convict somebody on circumstantial evidence is beyond me i don't know
so you think if if trials were held by judges or experts that they they would tend not to uh admit or not to convict people on circumstantial evidence
i think so
you know i i attended a trial in uh
in Germany when i was a student and uh
um-hum
that's the sort of system they have the trials are held by a panel of
three uh three or four judges who are well they're like lawyers i guess they're experts in the law and uh there there really isn't a jury and uh
right
uh they do the questioning also the judges do the questioning and uh
um-hum
they uh
it's i think it's a lot harder to get off on technicalities also because they uh
uh the judge is also sort of a jury
uh but i'm not sure i like that i think i prefer the jury system myself
you think you prefer the jury you think your chances are better
uh well actually i think in most criminal cases it wouldn't make any difference whether it was a couple of judges or
a jury what i what i worry about is cases where it's the government against the individual that's where you really need a jury of peers
well that's true
because uh anytime the the government um
is the government against the individual you need some kind yeah they need the protection of ordinary citizens i think that's really the only thing i guess where i would like to see the system system change is uh
um there ought to be uh um well
i guess i don't think that uh um
juries need to decide sentencing all the time i think maybe the a judge is a better judge of that or um
um-hum
well sometimes sometimes the sentencing is still is not fair
i mean even if well the jury i guess they do decide that but but i'm like you in a case like that most time its
i don't know maybe i'm too too uh uh
conservative when it come to that the the sentencing is really light compared to what i think they should be in a lot of cases
yeah
you know uh
well if you drag twelve people into a courtroom i trust them to make the right decision as to whether someone's guilty or innocent that's usually a matter of who to believe and what facts to believe
right
but people who don't who don't have day in and day out life long experience with
what prison's really like and what the options are to ask them to decide for one case on one person based on what they see i think that
is maybe uh a little bit naive
yeah
in Texas here people tend to get whipped up into a frenzy and slap long sentences on people um
um-hum
it's kind of a
um hanging jury atmosphere but in a lot of places i think people bend over the other way but
right
i guess
i guess i like the system that they have in some places where the defendant gets to choose whether he's goes before a jury for sentencing or whether the judge gets to choose it some cases some cases in some jurisdictions they can do that
oh really
i kind of like that system yeah
yeah that's that's not a bad system
but i i do think it need to be shaken up a little bit but the thing is too maybe they need more of uh
yeah
i don't know more of a expert types
yeah
to to be on some of these jury cases because most time you just pick you know Joe Blow or whoever
and a good citizen or whoever and and call them in
right
and lawyers blow sand in their eyes
exactly
i would like to see most civil cases tried before a panel of experts instead of ordinary juries
right right exactly
insurance cases and things like that
yeah
where
and um there'd be more honest settlements instead of this um
uh tugging of people's heart strings and um making them cry and feel like they're doing somebody good by giving them
um-hum
putting putting on a act or whatever
or giving them two million dollars to make up for the pain and suffering
um-hum exactly exactly
so
in i think in in criminal trials you need the jury as a defense against the government but in civil trials
i'd like
