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More people are getting away with murder

npr.org

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Re: More people are getting away with murder

#22

Post by privatedan »

Was on a jury for a murder trial dec 2021. The trial gave me a new found respect for how trials are conducted, what evidence is allowed in, how defendants are protected, and the general thought and reasoning behind it all. Then, the jury deliberated and I lost a ton of respect for the ability of a jury of my peers to logically reason and responsibly decide. It was an absolute shit show in false pretenses, irrational conclusions, biases, logical fallacies. We ended up as a hung jury. I was in the minority opinion and we let the offending party ( again in my opinion ) walk.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#23

Post by everdrive »

The comment section here is in poor shape. Violent crime is up all over the united states, and at least from what I've seen, there is not a single easy explanation for why. ie, I'm very sympathetic to the argument that "de-fund the police" has had very negative effects, however we're seeing violent crime rise in districts which were not de-funded. The whole red vs. blue states / cities thing doesn't seem to stack up either, as violent crime appears to be up just about everywhere.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#24

Post by aristus »

0zemp2c wrote: post #3

Why limit this to unsolved murders? How many police depts ignore property crime? How many police depts have hour long wait times for 911 response? How many 911 systems routinely delay or drop calls? We had a story near here recently where a DUI accident investigation couldn't proceed because it took so long for police to arrive that the suspect sobered up enough Or the woman who was hit by a car and the police took o…

It's pretty clear that cops are staging a slowdown strike. They are one of the few industries where they get more money when their KPIs go south.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#25

Post by version_five »

privatedan wrote: post #22

Was on a jury for a murder trial dec 2021. The trial gave me a new found respect for how trials are conducted, what evidence is allowed in, how defendants are protected, and the general thought and reasoning behind it all. Then, the jury deliberated and I lost a ton of respect for the ability of a jury of my peers to logically reason and responsibly decide. It was an absolute shit show in false pretenses, irrational…

Your anecdote sounds like an example of the system working to me.

I'm absolutely sure your assessment is correct:

   I lost a ton of respect for the ability of a jury of my peers to logically reason and responsibly decide
People as a rule are horrible at logical thinking.

But that's absolutely the right side to err on. Much better for twelve people to have to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.

Put another way, it's way more important for the justice system to minimize false positives (wrongful convictions) than false negatives, so I'm happy to hear anecdotes where it's seemingly biased this way.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#26

Post by woodruffw »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #4

Why does the lead photo prominently feature a “racism is a sin” sign and the article immediately mentions PoC victims in Oakland? Isn’t the vast majority of PoC victimhood in Oakland intraracial? Not many Klansmen walking around Oakland. Annoying race baiting from NPR.

The caption directly under the lead photo explains why it was chosen.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#27

Post by hawski »

angarg12 wrote: post #19

It always struck me as ironic that "the perfect murder" is such a big trope in fiction, while in real life an astonishing number of them go unsolved.

I think most (or at least significant portion of) perfect murders from fiction are murders of someone significant or the motive seems to be evident.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#28

Post by kibwen »

bbddg wrote: post #11
mynameishere wrote: post #6

[flagged]

Which cities actually have lowered their police budgets since 2020?

This doesn't deserve to be downvoted. Despite the "defined the police" bogeyman, it seems as though the police budgets of every city have done nothing but increase every year.

Re: More people are getting away with murder

#29

Post by kasey_junk »

privatedan wrote: post #22

Was on a jury for a murder trial dec 2021. The trial gave me a new found respect for how trials are conducted, what evidence is allowed in, how defendants are protected, and the general thought and reasoning behind it all. Then, the jury deliberated and I lost a ton of respect for the ability of a jury of my peers to logically reason and responsibly decide. It was an absolute shit show in false pretenses, irrational…

Counterpoint, I was on a murder jury several years ago where every part of the justice system was pretty abysmal. Whether the police who were near incompetent in their investigation, the forensics people who could barely maintain chain of evidence or both sets of attorneys who couldn’t make logical arguments on either side.

The only people who came out looking good was the judge who was able to keep this circus from blowing up and my fellow jury members who despite the system all ended up reasonable and serious in their deliberations.

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