Word: verdicts
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Given my white skin, my suburban background and my community's proximity to an urban cesspool, it may seem obvious--at least to some people--what kind of verdict I'd have voted for. Then maybe Southeast D.C., not South-Central L.A., would have gone up in flames last month. And maybe Potomac, not Simi Valley, would become a place associated with the nascent racism of the lily white 'burbs...
...bottom line, of course, is that the "errant" verdict is blamed explicitly on the skewed racial makeup of the jury and implicitly on the skin-mediated sense of justice supposedly held by the non-Black jurors...
Some of the worst errors are made during what is called the penalty phase. This is a separate hearing, following a guilty verdict, in which the jury in a capital case must choose between a prison sentence and the death penalty. Prosecutors offer evidence of "aggravating factors" such as excessive cruelty to convince the jury that the convicted killer should be executed. Defense lawyers are supposed to point out "mitigating factors" -- evidence of mental disability, for example, or a history of childhood abuse -- that might lead a jury to choose life in prison. But tracking down the evidence...
...absence of a verdict in the House, the Vice President selected by the Senate would serve as President starting Jan. 20. He would become the actual President if the House stalemate lasted indefinitely. Each Senator has a vote, and a majority of the 100-member body is necessary. On Jan. 6, when the action would start, Dan Quayle would still be Vice President. In his constitutional role as president of the Senate, he could preside over the session dealing with his fate. Legal experts are uncertain, however, whether Quayle could cast a decisive tie-breaking vote on this question...
...horrible scenery, from murder to mayhem. But San Francisco police chief Richard Hongisto's thin skin got him canned last week because he allegedly couldn't stand the sight of a gay newspaper that blasted | his handling of the protests that erupted in San Francisco following the Rodney King verdict in the suburbs of Los Angeles. So he reportedly ordered some officers to strip them off the racks...