Judge v. jury makes no difference; besides, it'd be unconstitutional

Submitted by Jinan Safwat (United States), May 10, 2006 at 20:53

DP writes, "Twice have juries unaccountably acquitted Islamist terrorists, and twice judges have fixed the errors. * * * Perhaps, when terrorism is the charge, as in anti-trust law or as in the French courts, judges should make decisions."

Judge Shira Scheindlin (Fed. Dist. Ct. So.Dist. NY) proved the opposite in the Osama Awadallah case, dismissing a perjury charge, thereby preventing a conviction.* The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, however, later overruled her and reinstated the charge. The jury heard the evidence and voted 11-1 for a conviction, resulting in a mistrial.

Trust me, as a litigator, I can tell you that, aside from their overwhelming cynicism (a product of listening to one side or the other lying to their faces every day), judges are just as capricious as juries. Also, unlike in special French courts or with anti-trust law, the absence of a jury trial in our civilian criminal courts would violate our Constitution. So, unless the trials are military in nature (and even then it's questionable), terrorism trials by judges are a non-starter.

* In April 2002, in the case United States v. Awadallah, after Awadallah testified before a Grand Jury that he had met with two of the September 11, 2001 highjackers, but could not remember their names, Scheindlin dismissed a perjury charge against him and found that Awadallah's prolonged detention without actual criminal charges was based on misrepresentations and omissions by the government and could not be justified under existing law. Her decision was later reversed on appeal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shira_Scheindlin

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