Interesting Article

I found this today on Facebook:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/08/casey-anthony-trail-the-sequestered-jury-fell-prey-to-idiotic-groupthink.html?fb_ref=article&fb_source=profile_oneline

Written by the Marcia Clark, who prosecuted O J Simpson, the article blames the sequestration.  I have to admit, I had not thought of that.  I would rather ditch the concept of sequestration than go to a professional system.  From the article:

This jury was sequestered for more than two months. When jurors are forced to spend day and night with each other, apart from their families and friends, they become a tribe unto themselves. Because they only have each other for company, and because most people prefer harmony to discord, there’s a natural desire to cooperate, to compromise in order to reach agreement. And they have no safe retreat. If they disagree with their fellow jurors, they can’t go home to a husband, a wife, a friend, where they can regroup and marshal their energies.

This makes entirely too much sense.  I don't know what sort of alternative there can be to sequestration, but this was a gross miscarriage of justice.  When you read what the juror (whose interview Ms Clark uses to illustrate her points) had to say, you will cringe.

We must find a way to keep this from happening again.