GAMES FROM MY CHILDHOOD Spyro Original Trilogy (1998-2000)
Beware of those wearing anime shirts, because they stopped caring what others think of them a long time ago.
OH FFS 🤦♀️
FRIENDS, ROMANS, BESTIES: If they were at the stage of filling out jury questionnaires, that means the people involved were most likely only potential jurors, being polled to see if they were qualified to serve on the actual jury. So sure, maybe it seemed like a ballsy move to stand up and condemn the system, but odds are that trial is still going full speed ahead, anyway—except now it’s a dead cert that anime guy absolutely won’t be selected for its jury, because announcing your lack of impartiality to the court tends to get you automatically dismissed.
And, y’know, not to rain on anybody’s feel good parade, but if you want to effect real change for the people targeted by an unjust legal system, the best thing you can do is tuck away your freaking soap box, shut the hell up, get yourself on an actual goddamn jury, and then NULLIFY. THAT. SHIT. Seriously. I’m sure (if this really happened) that a bit of performative grandstanding in front of the judge gave anime guy a nice dopamine hit, but it’s ultimately an empty gesture. If you want to actually influence trial outcomes in a situation like this, then your priority should always be getting selected with an eye towards jury nullification. You help nobody by giving up your possible spot on a jury to some milquetoast white lady who “isn’t that political.”
I'm unsure the power one juror would actually have
If they're able to sway the others, you're absolutely correct, but if they're not? Then you've got a hung jury
In the US that means a mistrial and the whole thing happens again, in the UK the judge would probably rule to accept a majority verdict. Either way, the outcome's the same (the people deciding are all the milquetoast white people who "aren't that political"), but the objections are sealed within the jury room rather than aired before the lawyers and judge to be entered into the record
I don't know what I'd do in this situation, but I don't think it's quite as clear cut as either side of this debate makes out
So a few things:
- I wouldn't underestimate the influence even just one informed juror can have on the outcome of a case. Maybe you won't convince everybody—true. But as a juror, you never know who else is on the fence until you voice your doubts and opinions. Some people are reluctant to speak out or deviate from the group, but will respond if somebody else is there to take the lead. Some people might even change a vote just to speed things along because they don't actually care about the outcome. You don't know what power you have until you try, and It's always worth trying.
- According to FIJA (the Fully Informed Jury Association, which is a good resource for jury nullification information and support), a hung jury is functionally "far better for the defendant than a conviction. Undoing a conviction is very difficult. An appeal is not guaranteed in the first place. It may not be legally permitted, the defendant may no longer have the financial resources to mount an appeal, etc. Even when a defendant is able to appeal a conviction, that individual no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence." So if you can't nullify, hanging the jury is better than nothing!
- Mistrials only mean the whole thing CAN happen again—not that it WILL. If a trial ends in a hung jury, the prosecution will usually review the strength of their case and weigh that against their existing caseload, budget, staffing, etc. to decide if it's in the state's best interest to call for a retrial (there may be some exceptions, but this is generally the case in both the USA and the United Kingdom). Sure, plenty of cases get retried. But in some instances, a mistrial from a hung jury can lead to the prosecution either offering up a more lenient plea deal, or—if they decide pursuing things is ultimately a waste of their time and resources—simply dropping the charges altogether (this is sadly common with sexual assault cases; they're more difficult to prove in a court of law, and while I'm obviously wary of false convictions overall, I do have tremendous sympathy for victims who end up with no recourse for justice once the state drops all charges). In short, you never know what the outcome of a hung jury will have on a case until it actually happens.
- Even if the prosecutors do decide to bring a retrial, according to professional jury consultant Alan Turkheimer, "acquittal rates in criminal trials are significantly higher after hung juries than during original trials." So even if you can't nullify a jury, you might nudge things in the right direction overall.
So yeah, I would still argue that actually being on a jury is a thousand times more useful in the fight against wrongful prosecution than getting yourself immediately dismissed by soap-boxing during jury selection. We need more justice-minded people to be jurors (and/or magistrates)!
Adding these tags from @takiki16 who happens to be a public defender!
#are ya KIDDIN me we celebrate hangs back at the office like the victories they are#a hung jury is a WIN. a hung jury means that the DA FAILED. it is a BIG BLARING SIGN to the DA#that hey...you SHOT YOUR SHOT....AND YOU MISSED.#think twice if you REEEEEALLLY want to try again!#if you reeeeeeally with all of our overwhelming caseloads want to spend your attorney's time and your office's budget#on RE-TRYING this case that wasn't good enough the first time around#and YEAH. YEAH. a potential juror walks in and starts giving Progressive Politics Seminars (TM) and i inwardly groan#bc that is the first juror that the DA is going to kick out of the pool - bye bye helpful progressive!#all the blue lives matter assholes somehow manage to keep their mouths shut and parrot 'i can be fair'#long enough to get a seat on the jury and convict our clients#WE DON'T WANT THE GOOD ONES TO SPEAK UP. WE WANT THE BAD ONES TO SPEAK UP#it isn't jury SELECTION it's jury DE-SELECTION
Play your cards right and get on those juries, kids!
STOP!! This is the mooncake line. If you see this on your dash you can have one quarter of this mooncake 🥮 with your favorite filling and a tiny cup of freshly brewed oolong tea that’s just cold enough to drink. Okay enjoy
i think my longest running joke since getting married so far is when my wife asks me things like ‘are you wearing my t-shirt’ i get to say ‘☭ OUR t-shirt’
I don't think dating someone much younger than you is necessarily problematic or morally wrong if they're in their 20s, independent, and you don't have direct authority over them, but nonetheless it does kinda reflect poorly on you as a person if that's the only type of person you'll date
i always felt like a good unofficial adhd test was animal crossing: new leaf’s fishing, because it’s ridiculously similar to the real actual test i had to take and also i fucking suck at ac:nl fishing
the actual clinical test i took:
- watch a computer monitor for twenty minutes. if a dot appears at the top, press a button. if a dot appears at the bottom, don’t press a button.
- wear headphones for twenty minutes. if there’s a beep, press a button. if there’s a boop, don’t press a button.
fishing in animal crossing new leaf:
- watch the fish bobber. if it goes under the water, press the a button. if it floats, don’t press the a button.
- listen for the fish to bite. if it’s a big bloop, press the a button. if it’s a little bloop, don’t press the a button.
The wildest part of my day has been flipping back and forth between tumblrs entire bacchanalia over The News and being at work, delivering the news and knowing I must codeswitch immediately
It’s infuriating how so many women were (and still are) discriminated against for being female
she also killed and dissected a rabbit so that her peter rabbit would be as ACCURATE as possible. all the magic of countless children’s childhoods was built upon the bones of a single bunny’s sacrifice. how delightful. how horrific. what necromancer could dream of such impact with a single stroke of their blade.
(celebrated children’s fantasist) diana wynne jones said that she once wandered into beatrix potter’s yard by accident as a kid and got chased off because beatrix potter disliked children, which really fits into the rest of this quite neatly
The Ballet Rehearsal on Stage, Edgar Degas 1874
Laszlo being the character we consistently see display the most (complex) emotions is so interesting to me. In another show he would be the dark, says-what-he-thinks, emotionally distant character, but in this show he's surrounded by people who are so emotionally constipated that he looks like a well-balanced, edgy guy in comparison
Love that so much for him
