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Jul 15, 2011 
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To many people, a good criminal justice system is one that produces the result that reinforces their prejudices and expectations, often based on what they've heard from people like Nancy Grace.
Therefore it's hardly surprising that something like this exists: a Facebook "Petition to Retry Casey Anthony." It's possible that it was originally started as satire, or for the lulz. It's even possible that some of the posts and arguments on it are Swiftian. But many supporting it are perfectly sincere and perfectly totalitarian, viewing criminal justice as a sort of high-stakes American Idol. Read it, if you can stomach it, and see the angry, shouting mob. Only mere chance, and the rule of law, stand between you and that mob. The mob sees itself as patriotic — its members wave flags on the Fourth of July and have appropriate decals and magnets on their cars and stands for the National Anthem. But the mob rejects the concepts at the heart of America — indeed, the concepts at the heart of Western Civilization — in favor of the raging, incoherent I want.
Read it also for curious notions of federal jurisdiction, the Dual Sovereign Doctrine, double jeopardy (which, we are told, does not apply when the defendant did not previously offer a defense she offered for the first time at trial), and civilization. Read it, consider that these people sometimes vote, and reconsider whether it's really so ridiculous for people like me to advocate minimum possible government control over citizens.
Via Radley Balko.
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19 Comments 
asshats, Criminal Justice
