Smitty
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 22,539
It's not even a "retard" system; people are taking a PFT talking point and acting like they have a clue about it.that retard NC court system is a key issue though. That "conviction" is meaningless. If you're not found guilty by a jury of you're peers you're still innocent until proven guilty under the constitution.
People.... there is not a jurisdiction out there where you don't have the right to appeal a first level conviction. Then, the mere act of FILING the appeal renders the conviction void. It is called a "De Novo" trial and it's like the original conviction never happened. People are EXPECTED to appeal from those low levels. It's not some kind of weird loophole, it's how the system works.
Here in PA, it's basically the default for any non-misdemeanor or non-felony case.
On top of that, the county of Philadelphia operates under a completely different way than the rest of the state, and is even CLOSER to the NC system. In Philadelphia, with misdemeanors such as DUI or ASSAULT (sound familiar?), you do not get to go to a jury trial first, you MUST have a bench trial in front of a judge.
But, you know, there's that pesky issue of having a right to a jury trial in such cases, so after the bench trial is over, if defendants think they can do better, they can appeal -- and the original bench trial decision is voided. Crazy, just like "retard old NC!"
Durrr.
The ONLY reason it is set up this way is because its quicker and cheaper to have a bench trial, and because some cases are so clear cut that the defendants realize there is no reason to go further to a jury trial if they lose. Obviously, this case was NOT clear cut, and therefore the bench trial was basically a formality, a speed bump on the road to the actual determination.
I also want to say this.... No, Greg Hardy was not found guilty. His appeal renders that void. It never happened. People need to stop acting like "Well, the judge determined he did it, but crazy lawyer shenanigans got him off, but in reality the evidence was there for a conviction."
The judges at those low levels favor officers and the state, because they KNOW the appeal process is there to be used. Saying "he was convicted" in the absence of a jury trial where the defendant appealed and had the case thrown out is misleading, borderline outright dishonest. Half the time you don't even get all the evidence for low level trials like that.
At the current date and time, a true statement would be "Greg Hardy has never been convicted of a crime." You can't point to the bench trial because it no longer exists.
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