Update: Writer Peter Watts May Serve 2 Years for Failing to Promptly Obey Customs Officer

[snot]

From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/ukI4bYrZqyA/peter-watts-may-serv.html :

"David Nickle, a mutual friend who worked with Peter on his defense, has a very good post on the subject, including a quote from one of the jurors:

"The job of the jury was to decide whether Mr. Watts "obstructed/resisted" the custom officials. Assault was not one of the charges. What it boiled down to was Mr. Watts did not follow the instructions of the customs agents. Period. He was not violent, he was not intimidating, he was not stopping them from searching his car. He did, however, refuse to follow the commands by his non compliance. He's not a bad man by any stretch of the imagination. The customs agents escalted the situation with sarcasm and miscommunication. Unfortunately, we were not asked to convict those agents with a crime, although, in my opinion, they did commit offenses against Mr. Watts. Two wrongs don't make a right, so we had to follow the instructions as set forth to us by the judge.

"That's apparently the statute: if you don't comply fast enough with a customs officer, he can beat you, gas you, jail you and then imprison you for two years. This isn't about safety, it isn't about security, it isn't about the rule of law.

"It's about obedience."

More at the link.

[pitohui]

1. the jury system don't work

you would not allow a group of 12 of your "peers" to vote on whether or not dinosaurs ruled the earth in jesus's day or, if instead, they ruled the earth 100 million yrs ago, you would instead ask a good geologist

if you want to know the truth, if you want to decide a matter of fact, you go to an expert who is qualified thru years of study to answer the question

you don't pull 12 randoms off the street by lottery and expect to get the right answer

the jury system is stupid, unjust, and achieves fair verdicts, on those occasions when they do, strictly by chance

i feel sorry for the guy, putting his freedom at risk in such a system

the jurors sound like cowards and assholes who KNOW what they're doing is wrong, but they don't care that a man's freedom is at stake over nothing, they don't care that he didn't do anything wrong, they are just a rubber stamp and proud of it apparently

[kestrel91316]

2. If I'b been one of the jurors, I might well have simply decided that the customs agent

was not believable, and acquitted.

But that's just devious little me.

[fishbulb703]

4. Remember, jury nullification is not allowed. nt

[Grand Taurean]

3. Can't juries ignore judges?

I believe they can.