[speaker001:] served on jury duty but it's ironic because I have a summons here for the thirtieth which is the Monday after next and I'll be a little more authoritative on this after then
[speaker002:] um I haven't either but here recently I with with the advent of court TV I've watched a little bit more than
[speaker001:] but um
[speaker002:] uh than I would have a probably a year or so ago so I I've been getting a little more interested in court procedures too
[speaker001:] um yeah I would think that um sentencing would be the kind of thing that an expert system would be ideal for you know there's a whole bunch of evidence that's supposed to be weighed and for nice uniform sentencing for particular things it would um seem like the perfect solution but I suppose that would be really subject to abuse as well
[speaker002:] well uh I guess it could be but I I I agree with you in that to the extent that I I think it it largely would be more uniform I think uh as a opposed to a a real mixture of juries with in different locations and different you know ideas
[speaker001:] yeah there's so much variation in sentencing like this guy recently that um there was some guy that was convicted and he volunteered to be castrated I guess that was down in your area uh
[speaker002:] yeah uh I think it was yeah Houston I've been hearing about that yeah
[speaker001:] and then here they've gone and um no surgeon could be found to perform the job so the judge went and withdrew the whole idea or something like that
[speaker002:] yeah plus he was getting a lot of uh uh criticisms I guess for by different groups you know about just being inhumane you know that sort of thing
[speaker001:] yeah one thing I would certainly like to see is that um criminals be sentenced to some sort of a uh a means of paying for their um incarceration I think that's that's reasonable those of us on this side of uh the justice system have to pay pay our way through life
[speaker002:] yeah and and the costs are real high I guess of both uh of of keeping someone in prison and going through the trial procedure the whole whole works uh
[speaker001:] yeah absolutely
[speaker002:] and and that just comes out of the tax money and uh in a lot of cases the uh uh the person being tried sometimes you know they do have the means to uh to repay the courts or the victims or the prisons to uh to keep them
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] or to perform some sort of more work than is is currently done in most prisons
[speaker001:] yeah I would think there's a lot that a lot of production that could could be done um you know with people like that whether totally unskilled or not
[speaker002:] yeah yeah they need to make some adjustments on that um uh the the other question I guess that that to be addressed is uh whether uh a a verdict should should require unanimous uh uh decision
[speaker001:] that's a tough one we seem to as a group have such a hard time all agreeing and what is it they say about democracy the flaws of democracy is that nobody will um agree on anything or it's hard to get everybody to agree on something I can't there's some saying I can't remember what it is
[speaker002:] yeah it yeah I I I don't know but it seems like um everything is so stacked and in favor of the criminal that it's a shame to have a a majority that would vote uh guilty and to have just one dissenting vote could jeopardize the whole uh whole process or whole whole verdict to
[speaker001:] yeah really that's a really good point
[speaker002:] and it seems like it should just be uh some come up with some sort of majority maybe um uh maybe a two thirds or a three quarters majority or something because it's it's hard to get every single person to to agree on anything like you say
[speaker001:] how is it now do you know do they have it so that if um some certain percentage agrees then or
[speaker002:] well it has to right now it has to be unanimous on most of those decisions if not it's a hung jury and uh they're asked to stay in and try to come up with the unanimous verdict and then if eventually it's uh uh not unanimous even by one vote it's sometimes I I think it's either thrown out or they have to go for retrial
[speaker001:] hum
[speaker002:] um even if just one person is is holding out or can't be convinced to uh to vote guilty
[speaker001:] more time and expense
[speaker002:] yeah I mean that's really a really really really a lot of cost to uh to bring that to trial again
[speaker001:] very interesting yeah there seems to be a lot of problems with the uh criminal justice system in America today I'm certainly no one to have the answers
[speaker002:] yeah they it needs some some revising and I heard that this is a little unrelated I guess but I heard uh what was it the other day it said to for someone who's convicted and put on death row it was it it was up in the millions what it costs to keep that person and then to execute that person at the time you you you know it usually takes years to do that
[speaker001:] hum unbelievably I
[speaker002:] just all the appeals processes that goes on and
[speaker001:] yeah and they're all automatic too for a long ways at least
[speaker002:] yeah and that was just uh amazing that they were talking about a millions of dollars per