No special treatment
Federal prosecutors trying the Fort Dix 6, the six South Jersey men charged with plotting to kill military personnel on Fort Dix in May, are taking an unusual step: They want to keep the names of the jurors who will consider the charges anonymous. They fear potential jurors will be concerned about their safety and that of their families, especially given the extensive pretrial publicity generated by the case. After all, these guys allegedly have radical Islamic and jihadist beliefs.
Why treat the trial of these defendants any differently than trials involving other dangerous men? If the presiding judge finds that the juror pool of 2,000, drawn from five or six South Jersey counties, isn't filling the juror box, then extraordinary measures may be needed. But until that time, let's make this trial a model of how the American justice system works.
Why treat the trial of these defendants any differently than trials involving other dangerous men? If the presiding judge finds that the juror pool of 2,000, drawn from five or six South Jersey counties, isn't filling the juror box, then extraordinary measures may be needed. But until that time, let's make this trial a model of how the American justice system works.
posted by Larry Benjamin at 3:43 PM
2 Comments:
Great post today and yesterday, Larry. It all seems to be about the headlines with this Fort Dix business, rather than any real threat. Does anyone find it strange that one of the defendants actually reported the advance planning to the Philly police?
It would be wrong to expose jurors to a group of murderers who are worse than organized crime gangsters. Nobody should have any difficulty figuruing that out.
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