Juries and judgement

  The motion for dismissal in the Marilyn Mosby case has been denied. She will have a trial after all. The news was talking about jury selection. The concern being finding jurors that are not biased in any way. Selecting anyone from Baltimore and the surrounding area will be difficult as this has been in the news now for several months. As far as Marilyn Mosby goes, she has been under public scrutiny for years. Given her stance on deciding which crimes should be enforced and which should not there has been controversary. Personally I couldn't help but think maybe the jurors should be selected using the same criteria as a supreme court nominee, only in this case, they should only be male and white. You know, in the interest of equality. 

 But as I listened to all of that I couldn't help but think like a lawyer. If I am the defense examining the jurors I will be checking their social media pages. If you are looking for bias, that's the place to go. If they were to look at my FB wall and read just about any blog I have ever written, I'm disqualified. There would be no doubt about that and I have to say they would be justified in that decision. Of course if I'm the prosecution I can also use that to disqualify anyone they should propose. It's a two way street in that regard. I haven't heard of this being used as a tactic but I'm sure it has been. Given our penchant for digging up stuff from many years ago, even juvenile records, I can't see that being overlooked. I'm just thinking it may be very difficult to find anyone without a social presence of some type. Mine is clearly conservative and pro-America. 

 Thus far the defense for Ms. Mosby has only offered one explanation. Her husband is ignorant. The official nomenclature is spousal ignorance. They are not denying that she signed the documents. She is not denying that she signed the documents. The defense is, she didn't read the documents. She simply took the word of her husband that the documents were correct. She didn't know, at that time, that he was ignorant. Remember, her profession is Attorney at Law. Yes, she has a law degree from Boston College. I have never taken a course in the law. I do know this much, never sign anything without reading it. I think maybe you are taught that in pre-law! I was taught that in grade school! If I'm the prosecutor I'm getting some stuff off Nick Mosby's social media pages and telling her, you should have known he was ignorant! He is still President of the Baltimore City Council. He is responsible for the expenditure of city funds and knowingly, willingly and criminally filled out tax forms and loan applications and got his wife to sign them. Why he hasn't been charged with anything remains a bit of a mystery to me. My guess is they'll get to that later on. I hope so anyway.

 Whatever happens I'll be paying attention. I will be interested to see just how they select jurors. Could there be a motion to move the trial altogether? I'm not certain that would benefit her in any way. The evidence is clear, the documents show criminal actions, claiming Covid relief to avoid paying taxes on her retirement savings account. The box declaring that is clearly checked and her signature is clearly on the documents. And that is only one thing, there are several more. Everything is clearly shown, there is no grey area in any of that. The defense is only ignorance. Last I knew ignorance of the law is no excuse! Yet, that's the defense? 

 Well, her husband is ignorant but she is not? So the passenger told you the speed limit, but it was thirty not eighty, you got a ticket but it's not your fault! The passenger was just ignorant! Case dismissed. Ah, no, we will take it to the jury. 

 Now, we are told not to judge. If I go to your social media accounts can I judge your thoughts, your intentions or sincerely held beliefs? Then in doing so I can judge what way you will vote on the jury? What I mean is, when does the judging part start? Is that before or after all the evidence has been presented? She is being federally charged on four counts. Two on perjury and two on making false statements. In my book that's four times you lied. I don't even see a need for a trial at all. The documents are there, she signed them, she is guilty as charged. The only thing that needs to be decided upon is punishment. I won't be selected for jury duty. LOL I wasn't even asked.