Thirty-Four Felonies
Jun. 19th, 2024 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenI am glad that I was not on the jury in New York that convicted Donald Trump of thirty-four felonies. It is possible that if I had been, I would have felt bound to refuse to convict, despite my belief that he would be much improved by a hanging. Jacob Sullum and others who are not Trump idolaters have have argued that that legal case was very dubious. The charges in Georgia, and the federal case over mishandling of classified documents, which Judge Aileen Cannon has been delaying, may be much stronger.
If the New York trial had ended in an acquittal or a hung jury, Dishonest Donald and his minions would have proclaimed the verdict to be proof of his innocence of all wrongdoing, and the purely political nature of all the charges against him, a result which I would not want. Nonetheless, I believe that a criminal defendant ought to be convicted only if the specific charges against him can be proven, not because he is unpopular, or a bad man in other ways.
If the New York trial had ended in an acquittal or a hung jury, Dishonest Donald and his minions would have proclaimed the verdict to be proof of his innocence of all wrongdoing, and the purely political nature of all the charges against him, a result which I would not want. Nonetheless, I believe that a criminal defendant ought to be convicted only if the specific charges against him can be proven, not because he is unpopular, or a bad man in other ways.
