BY DAVE PRICE
Each day Put up Editor
The trial of Sheriff Laurie Smith is a waste of money and time.
Smith is accused of corruption — giving gun permits to marketing campaign donors and withholding data on the jail to outdoors investigators.
The trial is uncommon as a result of it’s not a legal case, however a hybrid of legal and civil. If she’s convicted, she is not going to face the potential of jail. The one penalty is that she’ll have to go away workplace.
However right here’s the dumb half. She’s already leaving workplace in December as a result of she’s retiring at age 70. Voters will resolve her alternative in subsequent month’s election.
I’m not defending her, however this course of will produce nothing greater than a symbolic end result.
So the jurors, attorneys and decide will undergo the ordeal of a prolonged trial and, if she’s convicted, she’ll have to go away workplace two months sooner than she had deliberate.
Why waste the time of the jurors?
Many individuals view jury obligation as a essential evil. Individuals wish to keep away from jury service as a result of they’ll’t afford to lose the pay. The juror charges of $15 a day and 34 cents a mile don’t lower it. However for those who’re like me, you present up for jury obligation since you consider in our system of justice. And, in case you are ever placed on trial, you’d need good residents to take a seat in your jury.
However the Smith trial is a case of jury abuse. It is a meaningless trial.
The worst that may occur for Smith is that she’s going to start her retirement earlier.
If District Lawyer Jeff Rosen thinks Smith is corrupt, he ought to have charged her the normal method with legal prices and put her on trial with the potential of jail time if she was convicted.
However apparently he didn’t suppose he had a powerful sufficient case to get a legal conviction, regardless of a multi-year investigation that included a shock raid of her places of work.
This trial is little greater than moot courtroom — a faux trial college students maintain in regulation faculty.
A trial like this reduces the general public’s respect for the judicial system. Right now, the U.S. judiciary is dealing with assaults in any respect ranges. We actually have individuals going to the doorways of judges to attempt to kill them. And we’ve a outstanding U.S. Senator who warned the Supreme Courtroom that they’ll be the topic of violence in the event that they determined a case a specific method. At a time like this, DAs, judges and protection attorneys must be attempting to construct respect for the judiciary — and never give the general public causes to snicker at it.
Editor Dave Value’s column seems on Mondays. His e-mail deal with is worth@padailypost.com.
