Power to the People?

The state of Colorado has passed a land-mark law that allows the jury in some trials … with the permission and oversight of the judge and the input of the attorneys … to submit questions to witnesses.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

Not surprisingly, of course, the attorneys are the largest group resisting this experiment in improving a seemingly ancient justice system.

This is topical because it has been decided in the Kobe Bryant rape trial jurors may submit questions to the judge, who will review the questions, consulting the attorneys. Rather than being spectators, the jurors become a vital part of the process. Is it any wonder that attorneys … who specialize in taking reality, translating it into their priestly Latin (a DEAD language, except in the American justice system), and establishing complex rituals and boundaries so the uninitiated cannot hope to grasp, let alone participate … is it any wonder that these elitists are upset that jurors may encroach on their ludicrous source of income?

In their own defense, the legal profession proclaims magnanimously that their complex and arcane system of mumbo-jumbo exists to protect the rights of individuals to a fair trial. Of course, thanks to the mumbo-jumbo, “common” folk have no way of knowing if their rights were protected. All that most Americans have to rely on is the justice industry’s assertion that, “We have gone to many years of college and endured crushing examinations, so we MUST be smarter and better qualified. You can trust us.” Says the spider to the fly.

This is a case of the people who invented “Blernsball” …

(1) deciding on the rules,
(2) passing the rules along to insiders,
(3) keeping the vast majority from learning about the rules,
(4) changing the rules occasionally,
(5) making it unlawful to practice the sport without excessive licensing and training,
(6) guaranteeing that everyone with a problem is required to play for a chance to gain relief,
(7) supplying misleading and false information about the game through popular media programs and novels,
(8) and charging handsomely for the expert coaching of the progeny of the inventors.

As a rule of thumb, when something comes up that is opposed by my adversary, I am inclined to support it in order to level the playing field somewhat against the others.

So let the jurors, who decide the case, ultimately, participate in the process of the case. It’s hard to imagine that “regular” people can do more to damage the system than the experts, who break it so they can be called upon to fix it every hour of every day.