Until this weekend, traveling, and seeing cable TV news more often than usual, I was barely aware of the Casey Anthony trial. Cable news, and Fox in particular, tried very hard to convince me that she was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. My reaction was that she sounded guilty but the evidence was not beyond a reasonable doubt.
A jury of 12 people, who as far as I know, listened to the whole trial and had no particular reason to be biased, found her not guilty.
Damn, I'm glad that's over with.
You might also find this old essay of Eugene Volokh's instructive.
"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer," says English jurist William Blackstone. The ratio 10:1 has become known as the "Blackstone ratio." Lawyers "are indoctrinated" with it "early in law school." "Schoolboys are taught" it. In the fantasies of legal academics, jurors think about Blackstone routinely.Read the rest if you wish to wade deep in the legal swamp. Hat tip to Aaron Worthing at Patterico's.
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