Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 1:38 PM
Fri Dec 18
65 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
| Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
| Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan Morrissey
| Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
| Twitter
Sadie Stein
| Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
| Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
| Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Lizzie Skurnick
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Weekends/Commenter Moderator:
Hortense
| Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/07/09
12/07/09
I know from my own practice that the best indicator of a jury's decision is a client's race and the amount of money that he or she appears to have. Classical physical attractiveness helps, too.
Maybe I'm being unfair to American juries, but I've spent my entire career struggling to get "everyday" Americans--the people who have jobs that will pay them to go to jury duty (in other words, the relatively well off)--to actually SEE my clients or to imagine what it must be like to live as a black/brown/asian/mentally ill/poor person. There are too many people who went to prison on my watch because of my inability to get people to stretch their imaginations. Keeps me awake at night.
Incidentally, public defenders make an average of 40 to 60 percent less money than prosecutors of similar experience. That, and we're overwhelmingly women.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
It is what first got me hooked on the story and have been following it ever since. This article explains the evidence of the case and the actions of the all the players just before and just after the crime. It is a compelling read.....
[www.friendsofamanda.org]
12/07/09
12/07/09
In contrast, it seems that in recent years celebrities are tried more severely, even in fairly trivial cases. For instance, if Paris Hilton had just been an unknown college girl she probably would have gotten a slight fine and been sent on her way. They never would have sent her to jail. I think judges and juries are harsher in cases that have clearly become media fodder and the subject of public debate. largely because of how Simpson was portrayed in the media, and how that had an abnormally large impact on his trial.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
I get what you're saying, but this is kind of a silly statement. Not one of the jurors in the case has ever "met" Amanda Knox. If they had, they wouldn't have been allowed on the jury for partiality reasons. If that's our line of thinking, then it makes no sense for people to point out the classism and racism that exists in the American justice system if they've never "met" any of the defendants.
12/07/09
12/07/09
I think maybe it makes people think there are less kidnappings than there actually are and that all kidnapped children are female.
The point being that the media tends to create illusions about crime and criminals that are unfair to everyone involved.
12/07/09
12/07/09
[blog.blackandmissing.org]
And from another site:
*2,000 children are reported as missing to local law-enforcement daily.
*Minorities equaled 65% of the total Non-Family Abductions.
*42% were African American (24,444) and 23% were Hispanic (13, 386).
[www.blackandmissinginc.com]
12/07/09
12/07/09
797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
115 children were the victims of "stereotypical" kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)
From [www.missingkids.com] and cited to a DoJ report.
So while there were 115 "typical" kidnappings, there were still 58, 200 children abducted by people other than family.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
Celebuvict? Crimibrity?
12/07/09
Women that like sex and vibrators are scheming whores!
Little girls must love the sex because I want to put it in them, every one does!
12/07/09
12/07/09
Or little boys that love it because they have one too ?
Yes, you remind me that sexism is still an issue and it goes both ways. Don't forget to vilify the other side while fighting for your rights, that will solve things.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
hmmm....I wonder if this version of "making love" involved force and quaaludes?
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
(Not a comment on Knox's actual guilt or innocence, just the media coverage)
12/07/09
The quote Polanski made to Martin Amis drives me crazier than anything he's said. I know for a fact that it's untrue, but it wouldn't matter if it was. Fantasizing about young girls is not illegal. Raping them is.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
You may not be able to specifically define justice, but you can identify what does and does not comport with it if you try.
12/07/09
@LegalCookie: Well, sort of. I guess I am not so much talking about justice as fairness here as I am talking about it as an aspiration to a better world.
12/07/09