To the editor:
I have been reading lately about many jury trials that have wrongly convicted a person or, the opposite, failed to convict a guilty person, or ended in a hung jury.
The problem is, of course, the whole idea of a “jury of your peers.” This is the worst way to dispense criminal justice. Trials should be conducted only with a panel of judges that has an understanding of the law.
Jury members are picked and receive little training, other than the judge’s instructions to the juries. These people, no matter how sincere, how educated or what socio-economic class from which they come, are not equipped to deal with the intricacies of the law and the slick presentations by prosecutors and defense attorneys.
No system is perfect, but the current one is ultra imperfect.
Simon Morse
Center Grove
