Based on my nearly 30 years as a criminal defense attorney I can tell you for sure:

There’s no figuring out of juries. The jury dressing up can mean anything. They are patriotic. They are ready for a picnic. They are in a good mood (this usually favors the defendant.) NOBODY KNOWS.

I agree with Big Mitch. I’ve been a civil jury trial lawyer for over 30 years and had several long trials in which jurors did things like that. It means nothing, or at least nothing from which inferences can be drawn. Bear in mind these people can only talk to each other for weeks and never about the case. They are herded around like sheep and excused whenever the arguments get interesting. Doing stuff like that lets them express some control in an environment where they have none until they deliberate. It was red white and blue because of the 4th. If was Halloween they would have worn costumes or red and green if near Xmas. Ignore it.

I agree with Big Mitch and Peterdownunder. I’m not a lawyer, but I was a juror. The guy was charged with murdering two women and the trial lasted more than three months. We spent HOURS in the jury room and we weren’t supposed to talk about the one thing that everybody wants to talk about. I think our jury was unusual in that we all got to be pals. We didn’t coordinate our outfits, but only because nobody thought of it. Outfit coordination means only that the jury’s in a good mood and not getting too weirded out by jury duty.

Big Mitch @ 137

Are you a libertarian? Do you think that you should have a choice to do heroin also? If so, I respectfully disagree with you, my friend. Cigarettes are an addictive, death dealing drug. Taxing it out of existance is okay with me.

Heroin, “my friend”, is an illegal drug. War is an addictive, destructive, death dealing situation, and I would like to get rid of that. Foods that cause obesity, which is most of the American diet, causes the leading cause of death, which is heart disease in the United States. Tax that. Smoking is just a side-show compared to the effect of the diet of the average American. Tax Micky D.

I don’t know what the point of the observation that heroin is illegal is. Should we make tobacco illegal? As for the fact that diet is a major problem in America, this is, truly a problem. Our farm bill contributes to it by subsidizing corn so heavily. By the way, this is also an immigration issue. Smoking is not a side-show compared to diet for the average smoker. I used the expression, my friend, because I thought the tone of my comment might be interpreted as to confrontational.

The MAC People thing was funny. Call me Dual Core Intel MacRue!!!! Love my MAC.

Sure am looking forward to some analysis of it all, as much of it got by me . . . . but god, Issa should be . . . publicly flogged and put in stocks. Is that ok to say? *G*

I SO ashamed he’s a CA boy of any sort . . .

Anyhoots, nice work FDL, really appreciate it.

That Senate vote cheesed me off, but, I’m not sure I grok it fully, yet . . I’ve about had it with MY Feinstein, Boxer, Pelosi, though . . . . .

And anyone ELSE we elected in to create change.

They are all acting like either the bully kicked sand in their eyes, or they’re part of the same crap we’re trying to eliminate. My money is on the latter.

Harumph.

Shadowstalker @ 142

BigMitch@137

Only one problem with that. Governments get more addicted to the tax money than the original addictive sin that was taxed. What would happen if no one bought smokes? Where would the gov’t get their big fixes?

I had to run out, and did not get a chance to make this very point before I left. I agree with you 100%. In a movie I saw about the cigarette industry an exec is quoted as saying that he doesn’t mind taxes because if goverment becomes dependent on same, they will never outlaw smoking.

Which, by the way, is why I support earmarking those taxes for smoke cessation programs, and health care relating to smoking diseases.

BigMitch@137

Only one problem with that. Governments get more addicted to the tax money than the original addictive sin that was taxed. What would happen if no one bought smokes? Where would the gov’t get their big fixes?

I had to run out, and did not get a chance to make this very point before I left. I agree with you 100%. In a movie I saw about the cigarette industry an exec is quoted as saying that he doesn’t mind taxes because if goverment becomes dependent on same, they will never outlaw smoking.

The jury dressing up that way on July 4 really does creep me out. I was at the Libby trial the day the jurors wore red shirts for Valentine’s Day and read a love poem to the Judge and his staff. I thought that was very inappropriate as well.

That kind of levity has no place in a courtroom where a defendant’s liberty is at stake.

I also have trouble with the Judge’s ruling on the Government expert, Gunaratna, allowing him to testify about interviews he claimed to have conducted with more than 200 high ranking
Al Qaeda operatives without providing the defense with their names. I think he claimed some might be in secret prisons or have been tortured and divulging their names could put them at risk.

The defense has a right to test the credibility of witnesses. By allowing him to withhold their names, the Judge not only deprived them of that right, but of the right to conduct independent investigation into the veracity of the expert’s claims.

Surely she could have closed the courtroom, allowed the cross-examination to take place in private and then sealed the transcript. Seems to me Judges don’t have a problem doing that at the Government’s request.

“rohan gunaratna” is a sri lanka name.

what is his involvement in all this?

thanks.

Re: Quitting
Hypnosis worked for me.
That, and I had incentive.
The last ex-mrs wgg declared emphatically one day that, since i had been a smoker when we met, and had kept on through the first 15 years of our relationship, she felt herself entitled to the next 15 years sans tabac.
she reinforced this with something of an ultimatum: i could continue to smoke, if i w3anted to go live in a cave. This being Louisiana, already just about all the habitable caves being occupied by something, i undertook the cure.
and it worked.
but i think you really gotta have motivation.
it’s hard…i haven’t smoked for 15 years, now, too
‘course the last ex-mrs wgg and i split in ‘99…

Nice to hear from someone else in La.
Here’s what worked for me. Every time I wanted to pick one up, I just imagined some fat cats sitting around a board table laughing at all us suckers who they addicted. Works for gas too. You’ll be using public transportation in no time.