Will Casey Anthony Acquittal Lead to Attack On the Right to A Jury Trial

The response from the "execute Casey" advocates has been vicious, vilifying the jury as stupid, incompetent, and overly influenced by CSI.

Here was the conversation at Fox News : 

BERNARD GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the mistake, the talking heads that he condemns, the mistake that they made is that they thought incorrectly that the jury in Orlando had a modicum of common sense.

This jury -- this jury watched too much "CSI, Miami." This jury wasn't going to convict unless there was rock-solid evidence way beyond anything that was presented.

This -- look, I mean, I'm so disgusted with this whole thing I can -- I can hardly speak straight tonight. But the lawyer condemning -- condemning the talking heads, listen, the problem is with the jury. Not so much with the talking heads. The problem is that the jury, as I say, didn't have a modicum of common sense.

O'REILLY: And I agree with you in the sense..."

My fear is that the acquittal will lead to the mobilization of forces similar to those which were mobilized successfully to destroy another right we thought was part of the fabric of American justice-- the class action lawsuit. The five Republicans on the Supreme court destroyed that illusion. It is not unreasonable to consider that possibility that the right to a jury trial will be assaulted. That does not mean that suddenly, all jury trials will be eliminated. It could mean that excuses and policies will be made to block access to jury trials-- excuses that will require expensive legal challenges that most suspects cannot afford. 

Jury trials are bottom up, decentralized processes that are out of the control of most powerful. Even the powerful mainstream media-- a major weapon of the right, of the corporatocracy-- were unable to influence the outcome of this trial. In fact, the media may have led to the failure of the prosecution.

CNN reported on attorney Jeffrey Toobin's commentary, 

"Toobin said that if media coverage affected the trial, the influence might have been seen in the prosecution's decision to make this a death penalty case."

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