Should Jonathan Bruce Reed be set free?
Then again, several witnesses pegged him for the crime.
How is justice best served in this case?
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M$5 Answers
Reed was identified by THREE people as the killer--including a woman who managed to survive his attack. While blacks may have been unfairly excluded from the jury pool, he was still convicted by a jury of his peers. Does anyone really believe he would have gotten off if there were some black jurors?
I hope he is retried, if necessary, and that the people who illegally excluded blacks from the jury 30 years ago are forced to do some MAJOR community service (I'd say jail, but haven't they cost us enough money and at least with CS they are doing some good for a change.)
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M$
I agree with that principle, but this case seems to test the limits for me. The man in question was not black, and even if he was, he doesn't have a right to have any particular racial composition on his jury.
The harmed party in this case where the black jurors who were excluded. The fact that they were not allowed to fully participate in the judicial system is an abridgment of their status as citizens. I see that. What I don't see is how freeing this guy is in any way compensation for what was done to them.
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M$
To me (and I'm not American, so I'm not quite sure if this is possible, but hey, I've watched Boston Legal and Alan Shore went to the Supreme Court), justice would be best served by the prosecutors appealing the Court of Appeals decision. The decision to do this or not should be separate to whether or not you believe 30 years is an appropriate sentence anyway. We in the general community also don't know what this guy is still like, so who amongst us knows whether or not 30 years is enough to sort him out and rehabilitate him.
Disclaimer: All my comments are prefaced on the belief that he did commit the crime for which he was convicted - he's got a scary looking face so he must of done it.
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M$
In this case, the jury manual instructed lawyers not to seat blacks because they would be more sympathetic to the accused.
Whether or not this was actually the case is not something that was addressed by the appeals court. The perception apparently was that, if blacks were seated on the jury, the accused chances for aquittal would go up. Which means he may not have gotten a fair trial.
Also, Texas is notorious for trampling over the rights of the accused. See link below.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/execution/readings/texas.html
Just some thoughts. I appreciate your disclaimer, though :)
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M$
30 years is a long jail sentence to have served.
That is probably enough.
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M$
I think his race should be mentioned on the page. If he was black, I would be much more inclined to releasing him. (30 years ago an all white jury could have been prejudiced against an a black defendant.) However, since he is white, I don't believe there was any prejudice involved.
The case is riding the shirt-tails of Thomas Miller-El, who obviously may have been hurt by having an all white jury 30 years ago:
He has since plea bargained to have a life sentence.
Thanks for adding the pic.
Do you think that his race should be mentioned on the page, or do you think that the picture does a good enough job to explain this, even though the picture is more subtle?