Did you know, in some places the jury is not allowed to ask what the verdict they reach means in terms of sentencing?

In other words, the jury is not allowed to know what the defendant's punishment may be. XD

A few centuries ago the colonies had a problem because of this. The death penalty was being imposed for so many crimes in some jurisdictions that juries just stopped convicting people, even if they believed the defendant was guilty, because they didn't want the death sentence being given for things like petty theft.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

Longpatrol · 31-35, M

The death penalty should only be used in cases of murder, child sexual abuse, rape.

bijouxbroussard · F

@Longpatrol My understanding is that here the only capital cases are when a life has been taken. And often not even then, unless it’s a police officer or a hate crime. Even people convicted of treason have gotten life sentences in recent times. That used to be a capital crime.

Longpatrol · 31-35, M

That’s true, I personally feel that the capital crimes list should be expanded to include child sexual abuse and rape@bijouxbroussard

bijouxbroussard · F

@Longpatrol I can understand that. The only problem is, we’ve been wrong; people who have served time have been exonerated with the advent of DNA testing, some folks after [b]decades[/b]. They’ve been released and some have been compensated for being incarcerated while innocent. But you can’t give back someone’s [b]life[/b] if they’re executed while innocent.