[speaker001:] I'm Nevin from Sunnyvale California
[speaker002:] hi this is Jim Bliss from Minneapolis Minnesota how you doing
[speaker001:] pretty good
[speaker002:] good um I guess the topic is trial by jury and how we should change that or how how we would change it um I'm ready whenever you are
[speaker001:] yep hum okay
[speaker002:] so uh what are your what are your thoughts on the subject there
[speaker001:] well I definitely think like decisions have to be unanimous
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I think that's probably a a good thing
[speaker001:] it's probably the safest thing
[speaker002:] yeah I mean it's to to easy to get a quorum and simple majority won't do
[speaker001:] yep I no and even even like you know two thirds majority I mean
[speaker002:] yeah that's yeah quorums are to easy to get and there's always that that chance that one or two people could be playing devil's advocate for a good reason you know so it's it's yeah definitely
[speaker001:] yep  yeah
[speaker002:] but um I don't know it I could I couldn't believe they suggested that judges should be doing the sentencing
[speaker001:] yeah like gives gives them a little too much power
[speaker002:] yeah that I I know of a couple of people at least who would be arguing with that or arguing against that pretty vehemently but um
[speaker001:] plus you know you may be you know doing a you know a a guilty verdict but it may not be you know may be for technical reasons
[speaker002:] yeah about the only good thing I would see about that is that would it that it would um hurry the process up a bit
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but I mean even now we've got I know we've got plenty of cases out there where people have been wrongly convicted and things like that
[speaker001:] I know what I
[speaker002:] and that's what the trial by jury I mean jeez if it if the judge was doing it himself without any checks and balances
[speaker001:] yeah it to be there'd be much more of that
[speaker002:] whose to say yeah no doubt are you involved in the legal system at all
[speaker001:] no but I tend I tend to follow it just to
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] just to know what's going on
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I've got some friends that are lawyers so
[speaker001:] yeah I do too so
[speaker002:] one of them just got his law degree but um to tell you the truth I'm not real familiar with um the system of jurisprudence jurisprudence the way it is right now I really haven't studied it in depth
[speaker001:] no yeah I know a little more about civil cases when than criminal cases which is it's more in how you present it versus you know who's right
[speaker002:] yeah I'm sure of it because a lot of those things it's all it's in it's largely a matter of viewpoint and who can argue their case better
[speaker001:] yep
[speaker002:] um it's kind of weird I don't know yeah I always think about watching the People's Court or something and how weird those cases get
[speaker001:] I know
[speaker002:] it's just
[speaker001:] when I was uh couple of years ago involved in some pretrial stuff and like you know you go say okay we can't bring up this point because then they're gonna you know the opposition will say this this and this and
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum and it's like boy the stuff that they can twist around is it's pretty amazing
[speaker001:] yep and it's like the the truth really isn't important anymore it's
[speaker002:] yeah it's not and then you get people who who bring in cases just because they want to bring them up just because like this this friend of mine's pretty obnoxious and he really gets into suing people
[speaker001:] yep
[speaker002:] and so he'll he'll sue just about anybody just for the chance to get into court and argue his case you know it's like
[speaker001:] that sounds like a little abuse of our system but
[speaker002:] it is it's it's wasting people's time and the taxpayers' money and everything else but uh
[speaker001:] yeah but it's for the more general people don't want to take responsibility
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know that's a
[speaker002:] and uh and and most of the time they're looking to place blame um
[speaker001:] yep
[speaker002:] and stuff see you're from California is that right
[speaker001:] uh yeah well originally Chicago but
[speaker002:] hum oh okay I was just thinking I wonder I wonder how how the civil system or the the court systems differ between there and say where I am in Minneapolis I mean from what I understand it's all pretty much the same except when you get to Louisiana
[speaker001:] I I really
[speaker002:] and Louisiana is completely different cause it was based on the what is it it's based on common law and the rest of the country is not or something like that it's pretty strange
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] but uh fortunately I never have had to go in even even for jury duty
[speaker001:] yeah I haven't either other than
[speaker002:] but um that friend of mine's telling me that I might have to go in for uh as a witness he may subpoena me so we'll see what happens but uh
[speaker001:] yeah I'm not really sure how we could change the legal system to make it better I
[speaker002:] yeah it's there are too many big problems you know there's there's such a backlog of court cases right now
[speaker001:] I know
[speaker002:] you know to try to get them all in in a good time and we already have too many lawyers as it is
[speaker001:] yeah and if it's criminal cases we you can't put them in jail because there's no room left
[speaker002:] yeah yeah that's true and in fact they're even letting some go I'm I'm originally I'm originally from Florida and it's like it seems like every year they let out more and more just because they don't have room for them
[speaker001:] yeah um
[speaker002:] you know that's not a that's not a good solution either
[speaker001:] not at all
[speaker002:] so I'm not real sure what to