Raising the bar

"raising the bar" – I've been on both sides of that bar! My granddaughter's fiance was just convicted of murdering my grandson age 23 (her cousin). She has a little baby & the heartbreak for TWO families is enormous. To top that - this granddaughter's mother murdered her father (my son) 6 years ago (she was 13 then)! Her mother (my daughter-in-law) was also convicted of murder & serves her sentence at Chowchilla, CA. Our family has been thru HELL (& lots of hours "in session" in courts). How many "Murders in the Family" cases are there these days?

thank you for your good programs.

Perhaps I should have explained that it is so hard when you sit through a trial where you love both the defendant and the victim. It is so hard and I had to do it twice now.

When is the next live court trial on? I would nice to have some kind of a line-up on court trials to be aired.
Thanks

I've been watching the judge in the Terrance Hough trial and she doesn't appear to be paying attention to the court proceedings. She's reading, using highlighter pens and looking at the computer and typing. It almost seemed like she didn't need to be there, things went on smoothly anyway. Was I missing something?

Wow, Joanna!!!!!

Your family needs to consider counseling.

My money says you're African American. Right?

It's the fact that 150 years ago your ancestors were kept as slaves, right?

Jami should introduce you to some of the famous, good men she knows and some of those strong black women. That might help straighten up the obvious sadness that your family members feel about the injustices that they have to endure everyday.

The truth will sting a little... Presumption of innocence does not mean pre-emption of truth... Jami, let's be honest, countless times we've seen defense attorneys get someone who has admitted guilt acquitted on a technicality, or get an extremely light, even trivial sentence. I know there are good defense attorneys who are good people, but many, many will manipulate the system to win even when they know in their heart that their client is guilty. Jami, do you know what will "help rebalance those scales of justice" as you say??? Letting the justice system find their client guilty when defense attorneys have proof he or she is guilty. There is never a WRONG time to do the RIGHT thing...

I thought this was about the disparancy between prosecution and defense? While I don't agree with Ms. Floyd's take on capital punishment, trying to distinguish who "deserves to die" based on how personally outraged one is, I agree with this take on the pro-prosecution feeding the law and order frenzy.

Prosecutors in our societie's sense of justice have an outstanding advantage in what many see as a TV-type sense of competition in the courts when a person is charged with a crime. We assume our prosecution would never charge a person, unless he wasn't already guilty and it's the defense's job to "get him off." Prosecution enjoys immense sense of power and funding, with the entire police force, a huge gov't investigative resource team, and all the $ needed for evidence testing. Unless you're O.J. and can afford to compete, you're at a huge disadvantage.

That's why we have so many innocent people locked up, and some have been proven innocent yet executed. The effort to exonerated these people is even more impugned by our prosecution who either lose the evidence (intentionally or carelessly), or stand in the way of obvious new evidence that clearly shows them innocent – all because they are not serving justice – they are serving their careers. Prosecution never serves the public – they serve themselves. Convictions mean "success" for their careers and reelection or reappointment. We should try people on an equal playing field. Hire prosecutors and defense from the same pool of public money, and let justice be served. We should recognize as a modern society, we can "afford" to have a guilty person on the streets, more than we can 'afford" to have an innocent man in prison or executed. The ones who believe the opposite don't realize the concept of ". . but for the grace of God. . ."

When I was a kid, there were several TV shows that depicted defense lawyers as noble and heroic. I still remember E.G. Marshall playing a defense lawyer who fought for his clients and justice.

I dunno, defense lawyers have gotten a pretty good turn at times. A Few Good Men, anyone? How about To Kill A Mockingbird? perhaps the CLASSIC legal drama.

In Jami's eyes, just one disparaging remark, regardless of its truthfulness, about a profession, race or way of life, causes irreparable harm. No amount of positive information can erase the damage caused by the slightest mention of negative information. In layman's terms, Jami is a big whiner baby girl.