"We gotta get it right."

Now that the fury over the Casey Anthony verdict has taken a backseat to more pressing news, I wanted to comment on the sentiment many expressed that the verdict was somehow a reflection of how "broken" and "worthless" our justice system is. I remember the day we discussed the jury system in Christian Foundations of Law. The words that stuck with me that day were "the only thing worse than a jury system is not having a jury system."



Though our system is far from perfect, I have to believe any one of us--if wrongly accused--would want to be protected by the judgment of our peers if we thought our bureaucrats were corrupt. That's the whole point, after all: to protect the citizenry from tyranny. I saw something very interesting in court this summer. A Norfolk police officer was testifying against a defendant charged with trespassing. According to the cop, the defendant had previously been banned from the property, but the only documentation the cop had in court showed that the defendant had been banned from a different address. The judge dismissed the case and said to cop, "We gotta get it right."



I was so proud of that judge. We often hear stories of judges who brush aside such "minor" evidentiary shortcomings. This one didn't. He could have given the cop the benefit of the doubt, that he simply brought the wrong paperwork to court that day, but he didn't.



But he could have.



Like millions of others, my heart is grieved that that sweet little girl will not receive earthly justice. But I'd like to think that's what the Casey Anthony jury's verdict said to the prosecutor--we gotta get it right. You have to prove how poor Caylee died. You have to prove her death was at Casey's hands. I have to believe those jurors took their instructions seriously and tried desperately to get it right. Surely they knew their decision would not be popular.



The founders of our system made the judgment call long ago that it's better to let a hundred guilty persons go free than to take away the freedom of one innocent. If I found myself on the wrong side of the courtroom, I certainly would not want it any other way.