Posted by Larry Hoover on February 7, 2006, at 17:20:24
In reply to Re: Interesting.... » Larry Hoover, posted by AuntieMel on February 7, 2006, at 13:26:49
> Begging to differ, Lar. (I do live in the same town as the trial, 'ya know)
>
> At the time there was no such thing as life withoug parole in our fair state. If convicted under criminal law they would have had choice of execution or a "life" sentence - which means parole - and the jury would not have been privy to how many years would have to be served before parole came up.Oh, sorry. I was just speaking in context of the decision made....it wasn't the "without parole" part I was thinking about. It was the "life" part of the sentence that mattered.
> If I had been on the jury and I had made a decision under false pretenses - I'd be one ticked off mama, that's for sure. And you'd probably be able to hear me screaming all the way up there.
As I understand it, that's what happened. The jury was very resistant to holding her criminally responsible. They believed her to be insane at the time of her acts, but they thought that would amount to an acquittal. And nobody could correct their collective misunderstanding, because:
Code of Criminal Procedure
Art. 46.03.Sec. 1.(e)'The court, the attorney for the state, or the attorney for the defendant may not inform a juror or a prospective juror of the consequences to the defendant if a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity[0] is returned.'
For the life of me, I cannot fathom what justification this clause has. I would think it would be unconstitutional to prevent a jury from fully understanding the decision they've been called on to make.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:605722
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060204/msgs/607305.html