Vicky/Chris Huhne Trial

[Pascal]

Americans won't recognise the name but it's kinda irrelevant. The main point of the story is that a (UK) jury has essentially been discharged for being too thick...

Wish I could say I was surprised

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21516473

[rong]

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more frequently. I think a minimum standard of education should be prerequisite for being a juror. Now that a much higher proportion of working class kids go on to university it seems silly to put the lives and futures in the hands of people who sometimes can't grasp the issues they are judging on.

In fairness, I've heard that it might have been the foreman seeking advice on how to explain things to a thick juror and/or demonstrating to the judge just how inept some members of the jury were. Hats off to the foreman if that was the case.

[Pascal]

My favourite bit is you can tell the judge is really exasperated and pissed off with them, but obv he can't say "you're thick as fuck" so he has to dance around it while still sublty insulting them

[MadMojoMonkey]

Don't you have jury selection over there? (Not that allowing the attorneys to pick the jury is a great thing for justice, but it eliminates some of the idiots.)

[seven-deuce]

[Pascal]

Don't you have jury selection over there? (Not that allowing the attorneys to pick the jury is a great thing for justice, but it eliminates some of the idiots.)

We don't have as much jury selection as the US. Basically, unless there's something serious - like knowing the defendant or something - you're in

well don't open the thread next time heyoooooo

[Lukie]

Worthless anecdote I once heard from a guy I hardly know: he was brought in as a possible juror somewhere in Ohio, and the defense attorney asked him whether he could see himself finding his client not guilty. Guy says, 'isn't it your job to prove that?'

He was dismissed.

[Galapogos]

Yeah I've heard plenty of stories like that on getting out of jury duty. I forget what show I was watching but they had a pretty good line that seems relevant, it was something along the lines of, "You have to have your fate decided for you by 12 people that were too stupid to find a way out of jury duty."

[wufwugy]

Yeah I've heard plenty of stories like that on getting out of jury duty. I forget what show I was watching but they had a pretty good line that seems relevant, it was something along the lines of, "You have to have your fate decided for you by 12 people that were too stupid to find a way out of jury duty."

too stupid or too morally optimistic. my brother was baffled when i told him i got out of jury duty because he thinks of it as a civic duty and an experience worth having

[spoonitnow]

That's fucking hilarious

[rong]

I did it at the old Bailey when I was 18. It was pretty cool at first, then got really unpleasant as it was a rape and molestation of a minor case, then it got really boring and technical.

[chemist]

They might not have been thick, it could have simply been that english wasn't their first language, or any of their languages.
Perhaps the judge should have translated his statement into half a dozen languages like the local councils do with all their benefit claim forms.

The UK citizenship test is much easier than in the US. But also,
if Attorneys could select jurors they might have a vested interest in selecting the thickest, most gullible, most easily directed.
I have heard stories (possibly apocryphal) of jurors being rejected because they looked too intelligent.

[Pascal]

Wow, you seem xenophobic

[BennyLaRue]

Speaking of, xylophobia...not a fear of mallet-struck percussion instruments in the higher pitch range. That whole system of phobia naming is so weird.

[MadMojoMonkey]

It's a perfect example of the scientific community taking something perfectly normal and giving it a foreign (I.e. Latin or Greek) name just so they can re-cast the discussion into their own terms, without actually saying anything new or relevant.

Doctor, Why am I afraid of heights?
You have <says "afraid of heights" in Greek>, but it's not serious.
Oh, thank goodness. What's the treatment?
Stay close to the ground.
Ingenious. Your science is amazing! I feel comforted and empowered.
As well you should.

I love to write Socratic dialogue.

It's an odd habit to take things and rename them with hard to pronounce names that mean the same thing. What's up with that, scientists?

Fun fact: There was a discussion in the astronomical community to rename our galaxy something that didn't sound so silly as the Milky Way... until it was realized that the Greek work for "milk" is "galaxy".

[Lukie]

It's a perfect example of the scientific community taking something perfectly normal and giving it a foreign (I.e. Latin or Greek) name just so they can re-cast the discussion into their own terms, without actually saying anything new or relevant.

Doctor, Why am I afraid of heights?
You have <says "afraid of heights" in Greek>, but it's not serious.
Oh, thank goodness. What's the treatment?
Stay close to the ground.
Ingenious. Your science is amazing! I feel comforted and empowered.
As well you should.

I love to write Socratic dialogue.

It's an odd habit to take things and rename them with hard to pronounce names that mean the same thing. What's up with that, scientists?

Fun fact: There was a discussion in the astronomical community to rename our galaxy something that didn't sound so silly as the Milky Way... until it was realized that the Greek work for "milk" is "galaxy".

You forgot the part about the doctor writing up a script for a some new mind altering drug.

[BennyLaRue]

It's a perfect example of the scientific community taking something perfectly normal and giving it a foreign (I.e. Latin or Greek) name just so they can re-cast the discussion into their own terms, without actually saying anything new or relevant.

Doctor, Why am I afraid of heights?
You have <says "afraid of heights" in Greek>, but it's not serious.
Oh, thank goodness. What's the treatment?
Stay close to the ground.
Ingenious. Your science is amazing! I feel comforted and empowered.
As well you should.

I love to write Socratic dialogue.

It's an odd habit to take things and rename them with hard to pronounce names that mean the same thing. What's up with that, scientists?

Fun fact: There was a discussion in the astronomical community to rename our galaxy something that didn't sound so silly as the Milky Way... until it was realized that the Greek work for "milk" is "galaxy".

This is why I stick to one-liners.

[Pascal]

what

[Galapogos]

wat

fyp

[Luco]

prolly because he was on one when he wrote it