Malika
Well-Known Member
(To all fellow CAT addicts )
On the judge's instructions to the jury, my sense is that everyone, he included, kind of assumed (dangerous) that the case was open and shut, and that Casey would be found guilty in short order. He seemed to me to bend over backwards to be scrupulously fair and objective in presenting the case and in his instructions.
I do agree that some of the statements of the jurors seem incoherent. In terms of the lack of direct evidence tying Casey specifically to the death they have a point and some legal experts have agreed with the decision. HOW was one to determine whether Casey was guilty of murder or of manslaughter, in the complete absence of any direct evidence as to manner and cause of death? That was a real conundrum for them - but in that case the fairest they could have done would have been to find guilty of manslaughter. I also agree that there seems to have been some confusion about the nature and weight of circumstantial evidence and the judge gave no specific pointers about that, as I recall. An error of judgement?
Talking of errors of judgement, Baez seems genuinely to think Casey was innocent and that she is a good and admirable person....
On the judge's instructions to the jury, my sense is that everyone, he included, kind of assumed (dangerous) that the case was open and shut, and that Casey would be found guilty in short order. He seemed to me to bend over backwards to be scrupulously fair and objective in presenting the case and in his instructions.
I do agree that some of the statements of the jurors seem incoherent. In terms of the lack of direct evidence tying Casey specifically to the death they have a point and some legal experts have agreed with the decision. HOW was one to determine whether Casey was guilty of murder or of manslaughter, in the complete absence of any direct evidence as to manner and cause of death? That was a real conundrum for them - but in that case the fairest they could have done would have been to find guilty of manslaughter. I also agree that there seems to have been some confusion about the nature and weight of circumstantial evidence and the judge gave no specific pointers about that, as I recall. An error of judgement?
Talking of errors of judgement, Baez seems genuinely to think Casey was innocent and that she is a good and admirable person....