Does the jury know better?

I believe in the jury system. It’s the best system we’ve got. But juries are not infallible.

Insisting on the sanctity of a jury verdict is wrongheaded on a couple of levels:

• Juries do get it wrong and

• Redditors are entitled to have an opinion that differs from the jury’s.

Here’s why:

Jurors are shielded from a great deal of information (consider the juror’s mistaken belief that Jay would go to jail).

Jurors are only as good as the evidence provided. We know things about Jay, and the cell tower records that the jurors did not.

So please stop scolding redditors for disagreeing with the jury.

A 1996 Northwestern University study determined that 87% jury verdicts are correct, a percentage the author found unacceptable. Moreover, the study concluded that juries are more likely to convict an innocent person that to acquit a guilty person.

What about The Innocence Project's many exonorations through DNA testing and other methods. Those juries were clearly wrong.

Juries can get flummoxed by technical evidence (like the cell tower records in Adnan’s case). For example, Jurors interviewed after a 1984 asbestos liability trial, believed anyone exposed to asbestos for a certain period would develop asbestosis – a view contrary to the medical evidence presented at trial.

Jurors have been known to ignore the law and decide as they please – it’s called “jury nullification”. It’s happened since the time of John Peter Zenger.

The supervisors at my public defender firm would say “a trial is a crap shoot” when their young charges were anxious to go to trial. That was a hard-learned truth. It usually goes right, but it can go very, very wrong.

Remember juror “B37” in the George Zimmerman trial? “Zimmerman’s heart was in the right place.”

Darren Wilson’s grand jury prosecutor gave the jury a statute (that allowed police officers to shoot fleeing suspects). That statute was repealed as unconstitutional in 1979.

Then there is OJ Simpson. Was that jury right? Did that jury know more than those watching Court TV? Was it reasonable to have a different opinion. Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman’s blood was recovered from OJ’s Bronco.

So yes, it’s completely reasonable to differ with a jury verdict.

There is no basis to be shaming the r/serialpodcast sub.