• fine_sandy_bottom
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    8 hours ago

    The jury nullification thing pisses me off.

    I get that people don’t want Luigi to go to jail but wishing for juries to just make up the law based on the vibe of the case is just bonkers.

    The court system is a joke already.

    • Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Jury’s have kind of always been vibes. There’s plenty of black kids that got the guilty verdict and hung and later it was revealed to be the womans father or friend of the family that raped.

      It is important to be more than a clockwork orange, understand the law but don’t apply it with such rigidity as to be devoid of morals or humanity.

      • fine_sandy_bottom
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        3 hours ago

        I strongly disagree. Laws must be consistently applied.

        To set aside the law prohibiting murder in a specific case just because you don’t like the victim is the antithesis of a fair and just legal system.

    • Freefall@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      He isn’t a threat to the public. No need to lock him up. Odds are good he won’t reoffend either.

      • fine_sandy_bottom
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        5 minutes ago

        You could say that about most murderers. Why not just abolish the prohibition on murder?

    • mcherm@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      I have two arguments to defend jury nullification. First of all, in our system “jury nullification” is NOT a policy. It is the name for the inevitable fact to that members of a jury can decide to vote “innocent” without being subject to some kind of interrogation.

      My second argument is this: I think jury nullification is actually a good policy, because the only thing it produces are delays unless fully 12 out of 12 randomly selected citizens think this application of the law is completely unfair. If the citizenry believes a law is unfair with that much unanimity it probably IS unfair.

      • fine_sandy_bottom
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        4 hours ago

        Well, to your first point, jurors cannot be held accountable for their verdict. Obviously if they could the whole system breaks down. Jurors can exploit this protection to return a false verdict with impunity, but it is exactly that - false testament. Others will try to say that jury nullification is an intended feature of the legal system but IMO it’s just exploiting a limitation.

        Secondly, you’re not talking about an unfair law, you’re talking about an unjust outcome. All laws will produce unjust outcomes in some specific circumstances. However a law against murder reduces more harm than it causes, so it’s worth upholding.

        To me, the idea of having juries decide to set aside the law in cases they feel are unjust is an absurdity. Imagine if Trump were on trial and the jury unanimously returned not-guilty despite obvious guilt.

        • Manalith@midwest.social
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          4 hours ago

          To be fair, both Biden and Trump set aside the law by not actually banning TikTok, so it makes sense that at least in some specific instances, normal people are allowed to as well.

          • fine_sandy_bottom
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            3 hours ago

            No, that doesn’t make any sense at all.

            Presidents are elected to weird ultimate power, and are intended to do so with the support of the best advice available.

        • ximtor@lemm.ee
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          4 hours ago

          Imagine Trump being found guilty and it doesn’t fucking matter at all?

    • zergtoshi@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Why let only judges make the jokes then and not the people in the jury too?
      Imho that’s a fairness in a sometimes unfair system.

      • fine_sandy_bottom
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        4 hours ago

        It’s really not a “fairness” because every case will be heard by different jurors with no legal experience.

        The “fairness” you’re talking about will depend on the popularity of the accused.

        Do you honestly believe Luigi would enjoy the support he has of he were an aging overweight bald guy?

        At its core, jury nullification is about deciding cases based on the vibe.

        • zergtoshi@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          I do believe that the perception of the action of which Luigi got accused weighes orders of magnitude more than the perception of his appearance or his popularity.
          It’s not him who was popular in the first place.
          It was what was done.
          Accusing him of it in turn made him popular. That would’ve worked for other people too.

          • fine_sandy_bottom
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            3 hours ago

            That’s not the type of popularity I’m talking about.

            Luigi is young, approachable, affable, and not unattractive. I don’t believe for a moment that someone without those qualities would enjoy any sympathy from a jury.

            • Slowter1134@lemmy.world
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              2 hours ago

              Full hearted agreement. Pretty privilege is an observable phenomenon and Luigi is a cutie.

              Heck, you could even argue that sharing a name with one of the Mario Bros from Nintendo makes Luigi seem family-friendly, silly, and meme-able.

              Either of which could explain a future where Luigi would be found innocent by jury nullification where an amorphous blob that represents every other possibility would be found guilty.

              However, the only way to be sure is to test the hypothesis. So to all you scientists out there, go forth and collect more data points!

      • fine_sandy_bottom
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        5 hours ago

        Because judges have experience in law, and they have to stand by their decisions.

      • notabot@lemm.ee
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        6 hours ago

        Because that’s how lynch mobs got off without penalties too. It’s very much a case of being careful what you wish for in this case. If he gets off because the jury says it’s OK to gun someone down without direct provocation, you can bet that others will too. You shot a gay man for no reason? No problem, the jury says that’s fine. You shot someone you suspect of having sympathies for Democrats? Head home, the jury was packed with MAGAs.

        • Lightor@lemmy.world
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          46 minutes ago

          Rich people and people in government already get away with this stuff. Our president is a felon. If people in power aren’t bound by the law then citizens will act. Only holding the people who act accountable is ensuring that the people in power never have consequences.

        • zergtoshi@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Well, given that jury nullification is a thing and considering how rarely it happens, I’d rather risk the scenarios outlined by you than having no way of giving a not guilty verdict to people this way who do something illegal but legitimate.