A true jury of peers

I think we need to just start trying all sensational criminal cases in the media. We could set up a web site where people can log in and vote "guilty or not guilty" -- and cookies set on their machines would prevent people from logging in more than once from a particular machine. That way, if someone wanted to vote multiple times, they'd have to go to a big computer lab or break into a huge office where they leave all the computers logged in -- and run from machine to machine voting. And, since people are fairly lazy about such things - only a few people would bother.

But, I digress. The reason I've come to this conclusion is the rather interesting media coverage some crimes seem to earn. Take the case of the attorney who stabbed his next door neighbor to death upon hearing from his wife that the neighbor had molested the attorney's 2 year old child. The media has started spinning out a few of the details. Apparently, after a long and productive life, the neighbor had recently chucked it all to become a raging alcoholic. Several other neighbors tell of having to drag his passed out, drunken arse back to his home to protect neighborhood children from seeing the ugly side of adulthood. The attorney in question himself called the police recently to report that the neighbor was parading around naked in full view of his open windows. The police told the guy to cover up - but wouldn't do more than that.

So, I can imagine that after the frustrations of this guy's prior behavior -- hearing an accusation of sexual abuse against a 2 year old child would make most parents react, um, violently.

If we could try this case in the media - we'd offer up the death penalty for the neighbor and give the attorney a medal.

Think of it - if crimes were tried in the media, spin doctors would have employment the other three years they aren't brainwashing folks into voting for one candidate or another. And, the gloves would be off. You could set a ground rule of everything you release must be factual --- with other media types standing by to report upon lies in each camp's spin. We could have a media blitz of one week. At the end of the week, voting for 24 hours - and justice is SERVED.