New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in murder

Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by moftz on Thursday September 20, 2018 @09:44AM (#18032361)

There was a case in the US where two judges were getting kickbacks for sending kids to a specific detention center for offenses as trivial as mocking an assistant principal on Myspace or trespassing in a vacant building. There's no jury in a juvenile court anyway but this is a case of a judge using their position of power to line their pockets at the expense of the futures of those kids. Not every judge is a good person but at least your lawyer can help pick the jury for you so some of the jurors might be more understanding of your accused crime and the circumstances.

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by dredmorbius on Thursday September 20, 2018 @12:14PM (#18033548)

"Kids-for-Cash". "Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella were accused of accepting money in return for imposing harsh adjudications on juveniles to increase occupancy at for-profit detention centers."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by toomanybeersies on Thursday September 20, 2018 @10:07AM (#18032533)

I think that corrupt judges is a separate issue to whether a judge employed by the state cam be impartial.

It's also possible to bribe jurors to get off a conviction. Possibly easier than bribing a judge.

All classes of people are corruptible.

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by WillPostForFood on Thursday September 20, 2018 @10:25AM (#18032638)

You'd have to bribe 12 jurors to guarantee a conviction for a single case. Bribe one judge, and you control hundreds of cases.

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by ben_w on Thursday September 20, 2018 @12:04PM (#18033470)

This leads to an obvious question: should anyone have the right to know who the jury is?

After all, if you don’t know who they are, you can’t bribe them or blackmail them. Same argument applies to the judge.

One-way-glass might be a work of fiction, but video cameras are not.

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by gowld on Thursday September 20, 2018 @01:42PM (#18034207)

How do you guarantee a trial by jury, if you don't have to prove to the defendant that the jury exists?

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by knodi123 on Thursday September 20, 2018 @04:25PM (#18035176)

How do you guarantee a trial by jury, if an entire jury could be paid actors?

It's a bit silly to worry about that level of conspiracy.

But even if it weren't silly, there are easy answers. An oversight board, or revealing the jurors after the case is decided, or revealing the entire juror pool of 50 some-odd people, etc.

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by apetresc on Thursday September 20, 2018 @04:21PM (#18035154)

Just release the information afterwards, or notarize something. That's such a trivial problem to solve. How do you "prove" to the defendant that the jury in front of them right now isn't just the DA's extended family and friends?

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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by bluGill on Thursday September 20, 2018 @12:36PM (#18033725)

It isn't just bribing 12, it is bribing them in a short period of time.

If I'm going to do something and want to bribe a judge I have years to research all the judges who might be at my trial (there are not very many). Each will have a different bribe that will work. (one doesn't want his wife to know about an affair; the next is in an open marriage and doesn't care but he has big gamboling debts that you can "take care of"...)

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