MainSystems 2022-12-01T20:24:44+00:00 ExpressionEngine Copyright (c) 2022, Peter Quennell How The Supreme Court Might Disrupt US Democratic Systems For Generations tag:http:,2022:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3653 2022-11-15T15:51:00+00:00 2022-12-01T20:24:44+00:00 {summary} 2022-11-15T15:51:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org


Overview

If you think the Supreme Court is a factor in US elections, you maybe ain’t seen nothing yet.

First, a major surprise is how little the 1789 US Constitution actually says about the Supreme Court. Article III talks only about the judges’ terms of employment and controversies between which parties it should get its nose into.

Nothing about how many justices, and nothing about how the Constitution grants it the enormous powers it has accumulated which sometimes seem to disadvantage the majority - this may have been one factor in the national election outcome the other day.

On 7 December the Court will hear arguments in a case called Moore v Harper which could affect the US political landscape for generations. As the video below explains, this is an attempt to limit the powers of state courts to override state politicians trying to meddle with election outcomes.

It is in reaction to a number of multi-level tweaks to election systems and related legal systems leveling the playing-field a bit in the past couple of years. If the Court endorses the status quo, and maintains current state court powers, American democracy will gamely plod on.

 

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Global Justice Systems Lurch? Bottom Up?  What Italy Has Taught Us #1 tag:http:,2020:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3480 2020-06-23T00:25:00+00:00 2022-03-14T23:23:57+00:00 {summary} 2020-06-23T00:25:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org


Our Dog In This Fight

We long ago suggested that Meredith’s legacy could be some invaluable systems change.

And now sweeping justice systems change is in the air in the US, and to some extent elsewhere. As we have long documented in comparing Italy favorably with the US: it is really not before time.

Just about every TJMK post since mid 2008 has had as text or sub-text how investigators, prosecutors, courts and media have performed.

We learned a thing or two. For example windows of opportunity are periodic, Italy saw one after 1945, and the US is seeing a big one right now.

And though the job isn’t finished yet, Italy has refined its systems more than most and is already a global model. 

And especially, good change wont ever be created and sustained if the systems are not addressed directly.

The systems (which go under many other names too: playbook, protocol, procedure, process, app, skill, technique) should never simply be an afterthought of legislation or left to somebody else.

They really need help from all of us, in myriad teams, and they really are The Heavy Lift.

These are some of our many past posts checking out and comparing systems which have “system” or “systems” right in their headers.

Click for Post:  Impressive Public Push In Italy, Anti Crime, Pro Stronger Justice System

Click for Post:  Harvard Political Review Writer Alex Koenig Reproaches The Sliming of Italy’s Justice System

Click for Post:  Another US-Italian Case Shows The Utter Futility Of Trying To Strongarm The Italian Justice System

Click for Post:  Barbara Benedettelli: Campaigner For Victims And Families Says Italian System Denies Them Justice

Click for Post:  Italian Justice System Efficient And Uncontroversial In Other Prominent International Cases #1

Click for Post:  Italian Justice System Efficient And Uncontroversial In Other Prominent International Cases #2

Click for Post:  US Kidnapping Victim Gets Justice After 8 Years Despite Defense + Perp Groupies Gaming The System

Click for Post:  A Token Balance In The Italian System: The Voice In The Court For The Victim

Click for Post:  The Terrible Weight On The Victim’s Family Because The Italian System Is So Pro Defendant

Click for Post:  Italy’s Advanced, Effective, Humane Law & Order System Also Adopted By City Of New York

Click for Post:  Italy’s Unpopular Politicians And Mafia Fellow Travelers Against Italy’s Popular Justice System

Click for Post:  Why Numerous American JUDGES Favor The Supremely Neutral Italian Kind Of System

Click for Post:  PM Renzi’s Justice Reforms: One System-Change Need Strongly Suggested By Meredith’s Case

Click for Post:  Justice System Comparisons #1: If Meredith’s Murder Had Taken Place In Common-Law Countries (1 of 7 posts)

Click for Post:  Why Italy Doesnt Look For Guidance On Justice System From Foreign Smartasses

Click for Post:  Justice System Reform Is Suddenly Everywhere On The Front Burner

Click for Post:  Relevance Of The Ship Which Has Sunk In The Yangtze To National Justice System Upgrades?

Click for Post:  How The Italian “Justice Tortoise” Is The Likely Winner Compared To For Example the US System

Click for Post:  Italian Justice: Describing A Fine System And How To Improve It

Click for Post:  How Too Often Nobody Tunes In On A Faulty System Before It Spectacularly Goes Wrong

Click for Post:  Most-Watched COVID YouTube Explains The Many Rickety Systems That Have Let Us Down

Italian systems are among the global best. Crime and incarceration and recidivism are all very low. Opinion polls consistently show that the police and courts are trusted and well-liked. 

Ironically in Meredith’s case though the unique tilt toward extreme fairness helped to allow Sollecito and Knox to walk.

No other countries would have allowed automatic appeals on grounds so broad. The defense appeal case before the Fifth Chambers was huge and consisted very largely of innuendo and outright lies, which you can see reflected in the Fifth Chambers report.

Italy learns fast as explained in this post and the corrupt means the Knox and Sollecito teams used have already been made impossible going forward.

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Japan’s Justice System Flamed Like Italy’s - But This Time (Sort Of) From The Inside tag:http:,2020:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3442 2020-01-09T15:07:00+00:00 2022-03-04T19:23:26+00:00 {summary} 2020-01-09T15:07:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org


1. The Flaming Of The Italian System

The flaming of Italy’s justice system in “the Knox case” did not ever happen within Italy.

It happened for the most part trans-Atlantic. And it was not even beamed at Italy: it was beamed at American and British TV audiences and tabloid readers.

And of course it was wildly inaccurate. Italy rates high on public safety, fairness of the court system, and rehabilitation of those in prison. Its murder and incarceration rates are about 1/7th of the US’s.

Meanwhile this three-part series in part explains why there are such vast numbers in prison under the American system, which maybe does merit flaming.

To the extent that either system gravitates, it is the US system that gravitates, toward the more effective Italian system.

2. The Flaming Of The Japanese System

Everybody likes Japan’s cars and electronics, its culture, its scenery, its sushi and teriyaki… In most respects its national brand management really is excellent.

Helpful when Japan is just six months from hosting the Summer Olympics.

But periodically, as now, a spotlight is shone on the seeming over-harshness of its justice system.

Italy and Japan were of course allies in World War Two.

Post-war, Italy revamped its constitution and entire justice system to bend over backward to favor defendants.

But Japan did none of that, and its 99% conviction rate and the methods used to sustain that have been repeatedly criticized.

The sort-of-accused former CEO of Renault and Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, has just been much in the news, for dramatically fleeing Japan in a private jet, and seeking sanctuary in his country of origin, Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan.

At Japan’s request Interpol has issued a global Red Notice (a measure we posted on when it seemed Knox might flee extradition.)

Ghosn seems to have single-handedly saved Nissan from extinction by semi-merging it with Renault and by heavy cost-cutting rare within Japanese corporations.

His remuneration was always peanuts by American standards.

Ghosn’s main accuser that he feathered his own nest was actually his own successor at Nissan - who was accused of the exact-same thing a few months ago and forced to resign also!

Here below are some of Ghosn’s accusations against Japanese justice; in Tokyo yesterday the Justice Minister promised statements to explain and defend Japanese justice and to show what Ghosn had allegedly been up to.

Yahoo News Website

Japan’s legal system came under the spotlight when Carlos Ghosn launched a vigorous self-defence in his first public appearance since jumping bail and fleeing to Lebanon.

The former Renault-Nissan chief slammed everything from the country’s sky-high conviction rate to the conditions he faced during 130 days of pre-trial detention.

Here are some of his main criticisms, and how Japanese officials respond:

- 99 percent conviction rate -

When it comes to convictions, Japanese prosecutors boast a success rate that their peers around the world might consider enviable.

They win more than 99 percent of the cases they bring to trial, and Ghosn cited this astonishing rate as evidence that he would not get a fair hearing.

“I was facing a system where the conviction rate is 99.4 percent,” he said, claiming that the rate for foreigners was likely even higher.

Japan does not dispute that its prosecutors win almost all of the cases they bring to trial, but says this is simply evidence that they do not start legal action lightly.

Prosecutors “only indict a suspect where there is a high likelihood of a court’s conviction based on sufficient evidence, so as to avoid an innocent person (having) to suffer,” Justice Minister Masako Mori said in response to Ghosn’s criticism.

“It is wrong to argue that a person cannot obtain a fair judgement because of the high conviction rate in Japan.”

- Lengthy pre-trial detention -

Ghosn spent more than four months in detention over two periods after his shock November 2018 arrest, with the first stint lasting a full 108 days before he finally won bail.

He and legal team referred to the extended periods of detention as “hostage justice”, arguing the prosecutors were trying to break his will and force him to confess to financial misconduct charges that he continues to deny.

He said he felt “subject to a system whose only objective is to coerce confessions, secure guilty pleas.”

Japan’s legal system allows for long periods of detention before a trial begins, and critics at home and abroad have argued that prosecutors hold suspects before indicting them as a tool to extract confessions.

Prosecutors fought hard to keep Ghosn behind bars, arguing that he could flee if released because of his extensive financial means and international contacts.

“Ghosn was deemed a high flight risk, which is obvious from the fact that he actually fled and illegally departed the country,” prosecutors said after the tycoon’s Wednesday press conference.

- Detention conditions -

Ghosn slammed the conditions he experienced at the Tokyo Detention House in Kosuge, saying he was interrogated around the clock without his lawyer, held in a cell where the lights never went out and only allowed to shower twice a week.

Japanese prisons are not usually singled out for criticism by international rights groups, with violence rare and individual cells of about 6.5 square metres (70 square feet) or slightly larger.

Officials defend the rules governing interrogations, saying questioning is videotaped and suspects can refuse to answer questions. Those in detention also have the right to meet their lawyers outside of interrogations.

- Strict bail terms -

When Ghosn finally won bail for a second time, his release came with strict conditions: surveillance of his home, access to the internet at his lawyer’s office only, and restrictions on his contact with his wife Carole.

Prosecutors argued that she was party to one of the charges and the couple could tamper with evidence. Ghosn had to get court permission before contacting her via video conference, which he was able to do just twice.

And they said the strict rules were necessary to prevent him from fleeing the country.

Ghosn slammed the conditions as vindicative, saying prosecutors specifically blocked access to Carole to “break” him and that his decision to flee was motivated in large part by the rule.

3. Japan’s Promised Explanations

In fairness, we’ll post again if clarifications beyond those above are forthcoming.

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Italy Is Once Again Justice Forerunner In Case With Poss Future Global Implications tag:http:,2019:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3382 2019-07-10T01:56:00+00:00 2022-03-04T22:30:27+00:00 {summary} 2019-07-10T01:56:00+00:00 Our Main Posters editor@truejustice.com


From 1975 to 1980 six dictatorships in South American killed at least 23 Italian citizens.

The Italians were political opponents of the dictatorships in Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina.

Those dictatorships had created a joint operation, Operation Condor, to disappear or openly kill such “nuisance elements”.

As the video hints, the CIA had a murky role.

Despite that, some 24 surviving organizers of Operation Condor have just been sentenced to life by an Italian court.

They include several of the former dictators.

If extradition laws are correctly observed, and the US finds a way to not intervene, Italy will need to make ready some presidential cells.

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Italy-India Relations Are Back To Being Very Close With The Tanker Incident Smartly Resolved. tag:http:,2018:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3291 2018-12-03T23:47:00+00:00 2022-02-15T02:12:19+00:00 {summary} 2018-12-03T23:47:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org


Public Accord

For obvious reasons we’ve always had and appreciated a loyal readership in India.

Italy-India relations became fraught for several years after 2012 when marines on an Italian tanker off the southwest coast shot at and killed two Indian fishermen thinking they were pirates making moves to board.

Now see the Buenos Aires report above. It seems that ties between the countries are closer than they ever were. Both countries have habitually been among the greatest team players in the world.

Even despite serious anti-globalist pressures Italy still chooses to do the right thing.

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Murder Rate In Baltimore, St Louis, New Orleans, Detroit, Etc, over FIFTY TIMES Murder Rate In Italy tag:http:,2018:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3290 2018-11-16T01:05:00+00:00 2022-02-17T03:44:54+00:00 {summary} 2018-11-16T01:05:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org


Polar Opposites

Murder rates have actually been trending down a bit in the US.

But you are still around fifty times more likely to be murdered in several dozen US cities than in any city in Europe, where the average is down around 1 in 100,000 now.

And with regard to the exceptionally safe Italy, as usual the rate remains even lower than the European average still.

Would you hear this from the mafia poodles Doug Preston, Michael Heavey, John Douglas, Steve Moore, Bruce Fischer, Greg Hampikian and Co? Hardly likely….

Here is the Italian news service ANSA’s report.

(ANSA) Rome, November 15

The Italian murder rated dropped to 0.7 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017 against an EU average of one per 100,000, ISTAT said Thursday.

Eight out of 10 victims of femicide knew their killers, the study also found.

The killer was not identified in 43% of murders, it said.

The south of Italy holds the record for murders of men, with a rate of 1.01 per 100,000.

Some 21.7% of murders were committed by foreigners, the survey showed.

Note that (1) more than 1/5 of all murders are by foreigners, and (2) 8 out of 10 women murdered knew their killer.

So the barbaric Knox fits those sad trends.

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Another Attempt By An Outside Body To Interfere With Italian Justice While Far Short On Hard Facts tag:http:,2018:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3277 2018-08-16T10:39:00+00:00 2022-03-04T22:38:27+00:00 {summary} 2018-08-16T10:39:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org

Finding of CIA operatives guilt nearly 9 years ago.

1. The Abu Omar/CIA Case

There’s a strange twist in a US/Italy case we check out now and then.

The case was the kidnapping of a radical Abu Omar (real name Nasr) by CIA operatives in Milan in 2003. He was shuttled to Egypt where the CIA tortured him there.

Italy’s reaction was to be commended. It was harsh. 

Click for Post:  Italian Judge Ruling Is Tough But Fair In Another Case Involving Americans

Click for Post:  CIA v. State Department: A Significant Development For The Perugia Case?

Click for Post:  Some Homework For Curt Knox/Marriott/FOA: How Leaning On Italian Judiciary Can Seriously Misfire

Click for Post:  The Prospects In Favor Of A Possible Fugitive Amanda Knox Take Yet Another Hit

The 25-plus CIA guys all ignored Italy’s request to return for trial. One Portuguese operative was let go. Italy has never sent a request for mass extradition from the US though the team leader Robert Lady did forfeit a house.

After it was all over Abu Omar was tried in absentia in Italy - and found guilty of organizing a major terrorist event which ironically would have happened had he not been snatched.

He was sentenced to six years. But he remains in Egypt and may never see the inside of an Italian cell.

So you might think pro-justice bodies would be lobbying Italy (if at all) to see in prison any of the above? But take a look.

Click for Post:  ICJ calls on President Conte to remove obstacles to justice on Abu Omar rendition

Instead of going after any of the above, the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva now seeks to use what power it has to pressure the new PM of Italy to put its now-retired top spy - the one quite possibly out of the loop - on trial (again). Huh?!

2. The Joel Simon/CPJ Case

Too many other non-UN bodies too often dont get it right.

You might remember this which the mafia poodle Doug Preston moved along, in a dishonest and very nasty attempt to poison the Italian jury pool and inflame American public opinion - in fact global public opinion - in Meredith’s case.

Kermit mainly reports.

Click for Post:  Open Letter To CPJ’s Joel Simon In New York: This Is The Fact Finding YOU Really Should Have Done

Click for Post:  Open Letter To CPJ’s Joel Simon In New York: This Is The Fact Finding YOU Really Should Have Done #2

Click for Post:  Committee To Protect Journalists Responds, But Provides No List Of Sources Or Interview Transcripts

Click for Post:  Open Letter #3 To Joel Simon Of CPJ: Not Even One Anti-Mignini Accusation Withstands Careful Testing

Click for Post:  Is Joel Simon Of CPJ Now In Hiding - And Pushing The Naive Nina Ognianova Out To Take The Hits?

Click for Post:  It Looks Like Joel Simon And Nina Ognianova May Have Been Set Up In Their New Attack On Mignini

Click for Post:  CPJ Talks As If Franks Blog Had A Core Audience Of Millions, While It Was Really One Or Two Dozen

Click for Post:  CPJ Accusation #1 Against Italian Justice Officials : Was The Anon Blogger Pushed And Threatened?

Click for Post:  CPJ Accusation #2 Against Italian Justice Officials : Did Court Officials Hassle The Anon Blogger?

Click for Post:  CPJ Accusation #3 Against Italian Justice Officials : Was Anon Blogger Arrested On MIGNINI’S Orders?

Click for Post:  CPJ Accusation #4 Against Italian Justice Officials: Mr Mignini Sues For Defamation Without Cause?

Really shocking, right? We will be explaining this hoax to the media soon, along with all other ways the case was bent, and mafia poodle Doug Preston’s endemic role.

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Kidnapper Of UK Model In Italy Gets 16 Years, His Claims “It Was A Hoax” Don’t Sway Italians tag:http:,2018:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3270 2018-08-12T10:53:00+00:00 2022-03-04T22:34:49+00:00 {summary} 2018-08-12T10:53:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org

Prosecution recording of re-enactment entered into evidence

More hoaxes bite dust in Italy

Kidnapper Lukasz Herba’s intent according to model Chloe Ayling was to auction her for $300,000.

He claimed otherwise, and that she was complicit. Numerous English-language YouTubes probably not watched much in Italy (see one below) attempted to poke holes in her story and to bash Italian justice yet again.

The Italian court and media simply brushed this aside as ill-informed attention-seeking. In Italian (surprise, surprise) they got to hear about many more holes in Herba’s story, including recordings from jail of his calling his mother to get her to destroy evidence.

The court heard how Herba portrayed himself as a “mythomaniac adventurer” who claimed to have kidnapped and killed before in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the email he sent to Chloe’s agent he attached pictures of her lying semi naked on the floor in an unconscious state.

The court accepted that Chloe (who is from Coulsdon, Meredith’s home town) had acted smartly, in ways most proven to see kidnappees gain freedom and come out alive. Case closed for Italians.

In ways reminiscent of Elizabeth Smart she has repeatedly given interviews in English explaining the way out that worked for her.

in June the Italian court sentenced Herba to 16 years and 9 months. His brother is next in line.

With Italian and now UK opinion seemingly strongly behind her, Chloe Ayling is a popular draw on British TV.

She may sue some of the hoaxers. Now there is an idea.

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Italy: The Only Country To Host THREE of the UN’s 12 Global Anti-Crime Nodes tag:http:,2018:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3240 2018-06-11T09:00:00+00:00 2022-02-18T22:44:02+00:00 {summary} 2018-06-11T09:00:00+00:00 Our Main Posters editor@truejustice.com

International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa

1. How Italy Cooperates With The US Etc Etc in Crime Fighting

We have long observed that Italy cooperates in numerous ways with other nations, especially the US.

The US’s FBI has a well-staffed office in Rome working with its Italian counterparts on espionage and terrrorism among other common interests and hosts the Carabinieri in the US.

These 15 posts go to show why Italy is universally regarded in official circles as an excellent anti-crime partner to work with.

1 Click for Post:  Harvard Political Review Writer Alex Koenig Reproaches The Sliming of Italy’s Justice System

2 Click for Post:  Italian Justice System Efficient And Uncontroversial In Other Prominent International Cases #1

3 Click for Post:  Italian Justice System Efficient And Uncontroversial In Other Prominent International Cases #2

4 Click for Post:  Italy Handles Wrongful Death of An American With Usual Efficiency And Real Respect For The Victim

5 Click for Post:  The Considerable Number Of Suspected Perps That Countries Extradite Daily To Other Countries

6 Click for Post:  Italy’s Advanced, Effective, Humane Law & Order System Also Adopted By City Of New York

7 Click for Post:  FBI Reporting Close Co-operation With Italy In Arresting And Soon Extraditing A Fugitive Swindler

8 Click for Post:  Involvement Of The Formidable Carabinieri Shows How Italian Justice Will Not Be Leaned Upon

9 Click for Post:  How Many Extraditions Do The US And Italy Refuse? Approximately Zero, When It’s To Each Other

10 Click for Post:  Relevance Of The Ship Which Has Sunk In The Yangtze To National Justice System Upgrades?

11 Click for Post:  Counterterrorism: Another Way Italian Law Enforcement Is An Effective Model For Everywhere Else

12 Click for Post:  National Justice Systems Learning From One Another Tho Far From “International Standards”

13 Click for Post:  Italian Justice & The Telling Status Of Extraditions To And From Italy

14 Click for Post:  Knox’s Nasty-Prisons Hoax: NY Times Describes How Italy Leads The World In Rehabilitation

15 Click for Post:  Italian Police Again Work Hard On A Murder Where Victim And Main Suspect (Her Husband) Are Foreign

2. How Italy Is Perhaps THE Global Leader In Knowledge-Spreading

There’s been much vague and ill-informed commentary on Italy’s crime fighting, as if it is somehow way back there (“not observing international standards” and “complaints to the ECHR are epic”) and somehow pales in comparison to the US in this.

It is somewhat the reverse in reality.

We have posted series on the Italian and American systems showing that Italy very much has the edge these days. Italian reforms are in the wind but they relate to speeding up the system (with a diminishment of perps’ rights) and not to more justice, or fairer justice, which are hardly lacking.

And globally Italy matters MORE than the US to the enhancing of justice worldwide. This post describes how the gobal justice bodies are organized. A UN division in New York and 12 global development nodes around the world.

This is a description of it all posted by the one American node, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which is an arm of the Federal Department of Justice (as is the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

The United Nations (UN) is the principal source of comparative crime and justice statistics. The UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) promotes research and collaboration, studies new and emerging forms of crime, and produces documents to assist in the global fight against crime and drug abuse.

Within the ODCCP, the Centre for International Crime Prevention (CICP) maintains the Internet-based United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network (UNCJIN), which includes crime statistics and publications. This site provides an extensive list of links to the United Nations agencies and other research organizations and universities.

The Center also supports the work of intergovernmental bodies which set out an international strategy and measures to prevent crime and promote stable criminal justice systems. United Nations documents relating to these intergovernmental commissions and congresses are available online.

Italy hosts and financially supports fully a quarter of all the 12 global UN nodes, with Canada’s two nodes second. Seven other countries host one node each. .

Italy

International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa (ISISC), Italy

International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council (ISPAC), Milan, Italy

United Nations Interregional Crime & Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Turin, Italy

Canada

International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy (ICCLR), Vancouver, Canada

International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC), Montreal, Canada

Australia

Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), Canberra, Australia

Costa Rica

Instituto Latinoamericano de las Naciones Unidas para la Prevenci?n del Delito y el Tratamiento del Delincuente (ILANUD), San Jose, Costa Rica

Finland

European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI), Helsinki, Finland

Japan

United Nations Asia and Far East Institute For the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), Fuchu, Japan

Sweden

Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund, Sweden

Uganda

United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFRI), Kampala, Uganda

United States

National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Washington, USA

3. In Conclusion

If you want to know something about “global standards” and the state of the art in nations around the world in crimefighting, where would you probably want to look first?

To professionals, it is obvious. To Italy.

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Yet Another American Black-Box Jury Makes People Wonder “What DID Go On Inside?” tag:http:,2018:truejustice.org/ee/index.php/tjcomparingsystems/172.3239 2018-06-05T09:00:00+00:00 2022-02-15T04:19:08+00:00 {summary} 2018-06-05T09:00:00+00:00 Peter Quennell editor@truejustice.org


1. Italian v Common-Law Juries

We have posted previously that, as is not the case in Italy, in the US jury trials are becoming rare.

  • Unlike in Italy prosecutors can bargain and as there is usually a lot more stick than carrot and a crapshoot as the alternative a lot of innocent people simply cave.

  • Unlike in Italy, common-law juries don’t have to write it all out. Jurists can later explain if they want, but many don’t, and what went on within the “black box” may never leak out.

  • Unlike in Italy the US mostly has no education standards to end up on a jury, and there is a belief that only those too dumb to get themselves waived end up in a jury of one’s “peers”.
  •  
  • [Usually] Unlike in Italy if scientific tricks especially on DNA and psychology are played upon juries they can result in guilty clients walking free, and predatory firms saving millions in fines.

Dummies like Heavey and Moore and Fischer sure took the wrong system to task.

2. After The Waldroup Case

In both the US and the UK surprise jury outcomes happen frequently. In the US the Ethan Crouch case was one. The Casey Anthony case was another. The Bradley Waldroup case was yet another.

After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury had reached a decision: voluntary manslaughter, not murder. Others in the courtroom were astonished. “I was just flabbergasted. I did not know how to react to it,” prosecuting attorney Drew Robinson said later in an interview with NPR.

It had looked like an open and shut case. Following a dispute, Bradley Waldroup shot his wife’s friend eight times. Then he attacked his wife with a machete. His wife survived. Her friend did not.

Waldroup admitted responsibility for the crimes; prosecutors in Tennessee charged him with murder and attempted first-degree murder. If guilty, a death sentence looked likely.

But then his defence team decided to ask for a scientific assessment. It turned out that Waldroup had an unusual variant of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene ““ dubbed the “warrior gene” by some in the media because of its association with antisocial behaviour including impulsive aggression.

A forensic scientist testified that Waldroup’s genetic makeup, combined with the abuse he had experienced as a child, left him at greater risk of violent behaviour.

To many outside observers, it seemed that this evidence played a significant part in Waldroup’s case. This perception was compounded after some on the jury said later that the genetics influenced their decision to find Waldroup guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. “A bad gene is a bad gene,” one juror told NPR.

A flood of research (hardly necessary in Italy) was then turned on.  But (contrary to the above) it could suggest that a lot of courtroom science may - may - leave many juries cold.

It’s easy to get the impression that dangerous criminals are routinely escaping harsher punishments because defence attorneys are using genetics and neuroscience as a trump card.

The reality may be a lot more mundane. Far from revolutionising the criminal justice system, Denno thinks genetics and neuroscience are simply slotting into a pre-existing arsenal of scientific tools that defence or prosecuting attorneys can use to build a case.

The general public may be more resistant to the allure of science than many people might typically assume.

Over their heads? Suspicion of experts? Natural smarts? Who knows?  Other than in Italy, the black-box crapshoot still rules.

3. More Reading On Jury Issues

1 Click for Post:  It Is The Jury That Ultimately Matters: How They May Be Seeing The DNA Here

2 Click for Post:  A Common View In Legal Circles: Knox Campaign Often Talks Legal Nonsense

3 Click for Post:  Interesting Tilts Of Marcia Clark And Alan Dershowitz Toward Educated, Informed Italian-type Juries

4 Click for Post:  Casey Anthony And Sollecito/Knox Outcomes Spark Discussion Of The CSI Effect

5 Click for Post:  Outcry In England At Evidence And Jury-Briefing Requirements Which Make Convictions Much Harder

6 Click for Post:  In Trial For Killing Of 77, Norway Very Complexed Whether Perpetrator Is Barking Mad

7 Click for Post:  Reasonable Doubt In Italian Law: How Sollecito, Hellmann, And Zanetti Seriously Garbled It

8 Click for Post:  Obstruction Of Justice? How The Guardian Poisons Public Opinion Against The Italian Courts

9 Click for Post:  Italy Pushes Back On Dirty Tricks And Frame-Ups: Examples Of What Sollecito Must Defend In Court

10 Click for Post:  See Sollecito’s & Gumbel’s Myriad Defamatory Attacks On Italian Justice; Charges Are Expected

11 Click for Post:  Why Numerous American JUDGES Favor The Supremely Neutral Italian Kind Of System

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