Sunday, February 03, 2013

Summary of questions for jurors and judges, Update

I think I have thought of enough questions to effectively map the historical consciousness of potential jurors and their neo-Confederacy. I am going to summarize them here:

1. Are you a member of the League of the South, Council of Conservative Citizens, Sons of Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy or any other neo-Confederate organization?

2. Do you identify with the Confederacy or the Union?

3. Do you think it would be appropriate for public officials to praise the Confederacy?

4. Do you think states, counties, cities and other municipalities should adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

5. Do you think it would have been better if the Confederacy had succeeded in seceding?

It is a short list, but I think it would be effective in screening out people who are neo-Confederate or have Lost Cause attitudes from jury pools. I think all the questions can be reasons to exclude the juror with cause, and not merely a detection of bias. The Confederacy was a nation whose creation was attempted to perpetuate slavery and white supremacy.

These questions can also be asked of judges and should be asked of the judge selected to preside over a trial and if the judge asks affirmatively, the judge should be asked to not preside over the trial.

A neo-Confederate or Lost Cause type juror is not going to value the freedom of an African American as they would a white person. They have mythologies of Africans being contented to being slaves and have embraced a national attempt to maintain white supremacy and slavery. They will not take due diligence to make sure that a conviction is without doubt, instead tend to be biased to presume guilt. They will not be that concerned that there is a wrongful conviction.

Now that I have my five questions, I am not sure what my next step is. I will have to think about it.

UPDATE:

I would reword question #4 to say:

Do you think it is appropriate when states, counties, cities and other municipalities adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

Or.

Do you think states, counties, cities and other municipalities should not adopt Confederate symbols in their logos, flags, seals, or other symbols they might adopt?

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