Opinion: Judicial system unfairly limits jury's powers

Your editorial advocates that juries should have the final decision on the severity of the sentences meted out to criminals. Good, but if, as you say, "Juries are perfectly capable of determining whether a murder was particularly cruel and therefore worthy of a death sentence," why would they not be equally capable of determining whether the given law is even worth enforcing (or possibly "not worth enforcing in this case")?

Instead we allow and encourage our judges to bamboozle juries into believing they are forbidden to judge the worth of the law itself, a power juries have had since the Magna Carta.

You would have done a far more valuable community service had you pointed out that the Salem Witch Trials ended after juries delivered 62 consecutive acquittals, and the Fugitive Slave Laws were repealed when prosecutors and legislators realized that juries were simply refusing to convict based on them.

The power of juries to do good, to reform our society by ridding it of bad law, is today suppressed by a judicial apparatus which is far more eager to convict than to find the truth. Don't join them; beat them.
Frank Clarke, Oldsmar

Who decides law?

Re: Far-flung web of legalities entangles the death penalty, by Howard Troxler, Feb. 8.

Troxler would be wise to view the Times editorial Jury as decisionmaker (Feb. 7), so that he may understand the positions of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas regarding the Sixth Amendment. Thomas and Scalia can be identified as strict constitutional constructionists, i.e., they apply original intent of Article 3 Section 2, not the Sixth Amendment.

Prior to the expansion of judges' power (after the Civil War), and for nearly all the history of trial by jury (dating back to ancient times), juries decided both law and fact (Article 3, Section 2). For example, in an impeachment trial, the jury (the U.S. Senate) decides both law and fact. The chief justice of the Supreme Court simply presides with no constitutional decisionmaking power.

The Times editorial and Gov. Jeb Bush's death penalty questions to the Supreme Court address a critical and perhaps the most fundamental aspect of our legal system: Who decides law, and who decides fact? In your editorial analysis, it appears to be the jury. The jury decides, and the judge sentences -- history is on the side of your editorial.

Mr. Troxler, if strict construction is the liberal position, then count me in, thank you!
-- Dean S. Ratty, Seminole

We get what we pay for

Re: Sen. John McKay's tax initiative.

It looks as if the Republican-dominated House does not want the citizens of Florida who are currently paying taxes for those who are exempt to have a voice in changing that system. It's clear now what Florida should do.

Instead of spending a lot of money on elections, engaging in mudslinging, having legislators worry about retaining power and taking money from lobbyists, why not just have the Council of 100 make all the laws. That way, all the governor has to do is put his stamp of approval on them. This way we do not have any doubts whether the person sitting in the Legislature may have in mind the interest of those he is supposed to represent.

The Senate at least has the foresight to see the problem. As for the House -- we get what we pay for, and they appear to owe it all to the tax freeloaders. This state will always be second rate until there is some fiscal responsibility shown by government.
-- Dennis Stephens, Palm Harbor

"Just say no' to this pain in the neck

There is more to the tax than the tax itself.

All the talk throughout the media about the proposed new service tax leaves out something that will hurt the taxpayer perhaps as much or even more than the actual tax itself. The new people who have to collect the taxes on their services, like barbers and dry cleaners, are going to have to pay accountants and bookkeepers or take their own time away from their businesses to do the accounting and pain-in-the-neck paperwork the state requires to be filed with sales taxes.

These business people aren't going to pay this themselves. This is just additional overhead that will have to be factored into the cost of the haircut or the dry cleaning. So we'll pay 4.5 cents per dollar (until lawmakers raise it back up to 6 cents!) on our haircut, and the base cost will go up by 25 to 50 cents to cover the cost the barber's bookkeeper.

Just say NO to the new tax and NO to more and bigger government.
-- Rob Hoskins, Safety Harbor

The laughingstock of the nation

Re: Cutting taxes in the state of Florida.

Everyone knows that our educational system is astronomically underfunded. To even think about tax cuts, let alone cutting the allotted taxes to education, it is a clear message that this administration does not give a damn about our teachers or the educational system. How long is it going to take the people of Florida to realize that all our politicians do is talk for education and do the opposite? The lottery gave us extra millions, and where did it go?

Is it any wonder the state of Florida is the laughingstock of the nation? Everyone talks about funding education, and nothing is ever done. Why?
Donald F. Kelly, St. Petersburg

More money for education

Re: Educators rally against Bush, Feb. 6.

Pinellas National Organization for Women supports Florida's teachers who went to the Florida Capitol to ask Gov. Jeb Bush "to tell the truth" about how he and the Republican-controlled Florida House and Senate cut the education budget. In the December 2001 special session, they cut more than $100-million from Florida's universities, more than $30-million from Florida's junior colleges and more than $300-million from Florida's elementary, middle and high schools.

In January, just one month after the education cuts, Gov. Bush made the claim at the start of the 2002 legislative session that he will increase spending for grades K-12. Who does he think he is fooling? Gov. Bush needs to tell the truth about how the education budget cuts will mean bigger class sizes, frozen teaching positions and elimination of summer school programs.

Florida currently ranks 49th on per-capita spending on education and 49th on high school graduation rates.

Pinellas NOW supports more money -- not less -- for educating our girls and boys, who are the future of our state and country.
-- Sharon Russ and Ruth Whitney, Ph.D., co-presidents, Pinellas National Organization for Women, St. Petersburg

Denigration of the disabled

Re: Discouraging news for Democrats, Feb. 3.

To raise the subject of the effect that progression of Parkinson's disease will have on Janet Reno's candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Florida governor is to question the adequacy of all individuals with physical disabilities.

I work with sufferers of this disease daily as an occupational therapist and have yet to see indications of mental impairment, loss of critical thinking, loss of creativity, loss of abstract thinking or even loss of productive thinking in any of my patients.

Janet Reno continues to demonstrate her acute mental abilities as the disease progresses unpredictably on her physical condition. Questioning her ability to endure a vigorous primary campaign without your having completed even the most basic research on Parkinson's disease indicates not just a lack of editorial consistency, but also denigration of the disabled who have so much to contribute to the rest of us.

I suggest that if you have chosen a candidate to support in the Democratic primary, you keep your arguments focused on capabilities and not infirmities.
-- Cora Gary, New Port Richey

Reno has the fundraising edge

Re: Discouraging news for Democrats, by Philip Gailey, Feb. 3.

When is the St. Petersburg Times going to stop helping perpetrate the great myth that Janet Reno can't win and Bill McBride can? Let's start putting things in the proper perspective and talking about the issues!

For starters, McBride may have led in fundraising at the end of 2001, but Reno outraised McBride nearly two to one in the last quarter, pretty much the only time she raised money except Sept. 4-10. One out of every four McBride dollars came from his former law partners. Reno is the only gubernatorial candidate who can raise significant money out of Florida. She clearly has the fundraising edge.

As for the gerrymandering of union endorsements, Philip Gailey is right about one thing. Don't look for the rank-and-file to turn their back on this great Floridian, benign fainting spells notwithstanding. Seventy percent of teachers, for example, are women. Voters are getting sick and tired of endless column inches about Janet Reno's health. They are ready to talk about her whole 23-year-old public service record, the issues, and why she is supremely qualified to be our next governor.
-- Paula Xanthopoulou, president, National Women's Political Caucus of Florida, Miami

A veiled threat on the road

Re: Muslim sues state over license, Jan. 31.

While in the Middle East, Pakistan and India, I had the opportunity to observe Muslim women wearing headdress and veil or facial covering. There is no doubt that in almost all cases, full vision was partially reduced. This was particularly true of side vision. Pictures of Muslim women so adorned, taken here at home as well as those taken abroad, verify this.

Driving on our streets and highways requires constant vigilance to maintain personal safety as well as the safety of others, and good vision is a necessary requirement -- otherwise why test? If we could extend the scope of vision of all drivers, it would be a blessing. People who, for whatever reason, deliberately reduce their scope of vision and expect to drive our streets should not be permitted to jeopardize the safety of our citizens. At a time when most citizens are sacrificing personal privacy to aid the intensified security currently needed, this Muslim woman has the audacity to demand special privileges and initiates a lawsuit. If this woman gets her way, then the state should discontinue rescinding the licenses of the partially blind or impaired on the basis of discrimination.

If she gets a license, I hope that the Council on American-Islamic Relations and her ACLU lawyers are prepared to help in representing her in future accident lawsuits.
Theodore Weisse Jr., St. Petersburg

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