11-05-2014, 04:17 PM
She would likely serve close to her "full" stretch prior to all her appeals being exhausted, as there might be "good conduct" time and possibly parole release. I'm glad that in Texas, juries have the power to force a probation sentence, if not the actual terms of the probation.
I personally think that juries do a good job, but you never can tell what fact(s), or lack thereof, will cause a jury to coalesce around a unanimous verdict. Much of the time, jurors find especially important evidence, or lack of evidence, that the lawyers didn't really argue about during the trial. Remember also that juries are not, generally, salaried employees of the government, and judges generally are.
Judges often have thier hands tied by state, or federal, law about informing juries of the legal consequences of their findings. That is because such information is generally considered a judicial "comment on the weight of the evidence;" i.e. an attempt to influence the outcome, which we don't want. It's far better to have juries make their decisions on the facts before them, and not on a desired outcome, even though, at times, it leads to an undesireable outcome. (We can leave "making law based on desired outcomes" to the appellate courts.)
I personally think that juries do a good job, but you never can tell what fact(s), or lack thereof, will cause a jury to coalesce around a unanimous verdict. Much of the time, jurors find especially important evidence, or lack of evidence, that the lawyers didn't really argue about during the trial. Remember also that juries are not, generally, salaried employees of the government, and judges generally are.
Judges often have thier hands tied by state, or federal, law about informing juries of the legal consequences of their findings. That is because such information is generally considered a judicial "comment on the weight of the evidence;" i.e. an attempt to influence the outcome, which we don't want. It's far better to have juries make their decisions on the facts before them, and not on a desired outcome, even though, at times, it leads to an undesireable outcome. (We can leave "making law based on desired outcomes" to the appellate courts.)