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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (91359)	10/4/2007 9:49:38 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Well my friend, that's our legal system. One thing I do doubt is that its possible to have a witness who can both "cut a deal with the prosecution" and also "plead the fifth amendment". It doesn't work that way. So the facts of this situation must be somewhat different. From what you have related, the witnesses may have pleaded the fifth without a deal and then, in turn, were surprised that they were not offered a deal. If they had an attorney, they would have known this would happen. The defense or prosecution cannot offer and inducement to plead the fifth. This was my objection to the system the one time I served on a jury. The judge, prosecution and defense have all worked out in advance what evidence the jury may learn about and what they may not, and the jury is not allowed to ask their own questions or look up their own information. The jurors can make their own assessment of whether people are lying, but beyond that, you're making a decision based on far less information that I normally rely upon when making a decision. When I've worked on real estate cases for one side or the other, or have been used as a witness, the legal process has always seemed very fair - so long as you can afford legal counsel. But sitting on a jury I felt very used. If I were ever personally involved in a trial, I would always prefer a judge over a jury. Really, twelve random people off the street? That's not my idea of jury of peers. Peer: one that is of equal standing with another : EQUAL; especially : one belonging to the same societal group especially based on age, grade, or status. Better to select from Burke's Peerage. .