Would You Sit On The Jury Of A Mass Murderer With Thousands Of Rabid Followers?
So, they’ve decided to give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a fair trial by a jury of his peers right there in New York, where he and his followers killed 3,000 people. Nice. Very fair minded.
Aside from the obvious problems with this – you know, little things like not allowing coerced evidence into a civilian trial and stuff like that – let me point out another glaring problem with it:
A fair trail in front of a jury of his peers (yeah, I know about the whole “peer” thing, but we’ll let that phrase slide for now) means a public trial. Which means that the twelve jurors picked to condemn or free this lunatic will be sitting right there for all the world to see. Every news media outlet on the planet will be following this trial. The anonymity of the jurors will evaporate faster than a drop of water on a hot skillet.
So what, you ask.
So….it’s not only the world media that will be drawn to this trial like flies. Every radical Muslim who can get anywhere near New York will be there, too. The radicals are people who will, without hesitation and with great glee, kill you and your families for the simple act of disagreeing with them. Does anyone out there honestly think that the jurors or their families will be truly safe during and after this trial? And you can throw the prosecutors into that rather uncomfortable pile as well.
What happens if, by some miracle of jurisprudence, they convict this animal? Those jurors and prosecutors will have targets tattooed on their backs. Their lives will never, ever be the same. They will never again have a sense of security for themselves or their families. The rage directed at Theo Van Gogh for daring to produce a film critical of radical Islam will pale in comparison.
So, who will sit on this jury?
Anyone who does must do so in genuine fear for their lives. There can be only one outcome of this trial: He’ll walk. He has to. No jury will convict him, and the court will be tossing out evidence faster someone bailing out a sinking lifeboat. And in a very real sense, that’s what they will be doing.
The Obama Administration, in their zeal to show how fair minded they are, didn’t think this one through very well. Or not at all.
I ask again, who will want to sit on this jury? Perhaps the collective rage of New Yorkers over 9-11 is still strong enough that they’ll not hesitate to do their duty. I hope so, but as the publicity for this grows stronger and the more vocal of the radicals speak out – and they will – the dynamics will change.
I hope I’m wrong and none of that happens. Am I?
