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Philadelphia Prosecutor Training Video

Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Jack McMahon made a 1996 training video for prosecutors on the topic of jury selection. In it he explains how to exclude "blacks from low-income areas" and "smart people" from juries without using up too many preemptory challenges. A little taste of our wonderful American adversarial justice system. There's the one-minute of excerpts, and the one hour unedited version

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15 Comments

Current View: 15 / Show all Comments

Nightmare80 : LVL 16: VP 2.5: said:

Nightmare80

19 votes NegativePositive

113 days ago...

wow. Unbelievable!

stbasdf : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

stbasdf

-6 votes NegativePositive

112 days 19 hours ago...

ummmm i hope he was playing the role of `how not to do things` or being sarcastic in response to something he heard.

lostperson : LVL 40: VP 4.8: said:

lostperson

9 votes NegativePositive

112 days 19 hours ago...

sadly i think it`s true even now a days

exploder : LVL 48: VP 5: said:

exploder

15 votes NegativePositive

112 days 16 hours ago...

Yup. What else would you expect. Sorry to be cynical... NOT.

You want laws against shit, you want to solve problems by making laws and having cops with guns do the dirtywork?

This is what you get.

What else could you expect from an adversarial system populated by people with no true internal moral compass. If we don`t individually learn and live compassion to the same kind of degree we learn other basic things like humour, happiness, love, and anger, then we will never see the end of this shit. You often hear "that guy has no sense of humor", but how seldom do you hear "that guy has no sense of compassion"? Especially in America. No one else could possibly make that prick into anything better, only himself, and he would have to be wise enough to know why he should do better. Common sense people. Basic emotional intelligence. Basic personal morality. If we don`t do it ourselves, no rule book will ever make up the difference.

Case in point.

watersnake6 : LVL 30: VP 3.9: said:

watersnake6

-2 votes NegativePositive

108 days 4 hours ago...

I actually understand him.

and I agree....I would do the same thing I think it`s called racial profiling.

darkangeledge : LVL 21: VP 3: said:

darkangeledge

-7 votes NegativePositive

108 days 4 hours ago...

he might be racist, but his strategy actually sounds like it works !

mufasa1023 : LVL 36: VP 4.4: said:

mufasa1023

3 votes NegativePositive

108 days 4 hours ago...

stereotypes originate from sterotypical examples

I hate to be the bringer of truthful news but everything he said was true.

I have plenty of personal experience of jurors acting in the ways he listed.

Now, he wouldn`t list it because it is civil, but you will find that Plaintiff`s want to have their cases heard in courts located in poor neighborhoods while defendant`s want to have their cases heard in rich neighborhoods. And the reason is because poor people are more willing to play the role of Robinhood with other people`s money.

And frankly, I don`t think he is being racist...if he is picking on everybody equally he isn`t picking on race in particular.

Max_Power : LVL 11: VP 2: said:

Max_Power

3 votes NegativePositive

108 days 3 hours ago...

This could very easily be an instance of counter-strategy. Admittedly, I don`t want prosecutors thinking like this, but I also know that defense attorneys think EXACTLY like this. So to counter the defense strategy, adopting a symmetrical prosecution strategy seems to be a valid approach, albeit incredibly undesirable and reprehensible.

Darkslide : LVL 20: VP 2.9: said:

Darkslide

5 votes NegativePositive

108 days 2 hours ago...

We dont want intelligent people! They think too much, that scares us...=(
Poor, really poor.

canchingo : LVL 26: VP 3.5: said:

canchingo

3 votes NegativePositive

108 days 1 hour ago...

This is so true. I remember watching a movie about "buying" the jury. One dude in the jury starts stirring things up and can decide which way to sway the people while they go over the evidence.

To bring perspective to this issue. Think that the defense is trying to do the EXACT same thing, although their targets for the jury are different.

It is not about having a fair trial, it is about winning the damn case.

rexrun467 : LVL 36: VP 4.4: said:

rexrun467

2 votes NegativePositive

108 days ago...

Are you guys actually surprised?

Tada : LVL 40: VP 4.8: said:

Tada

-4 votes NegativePositive

107 days 23 hours ago...

To the people that thinks this man is wrong:

Biased people are not people you want on a jury. If a group of people really DO tend towards a conviction they shouldn`t be in the seat.

Also it`s not racist to say "One group of people don`t have the same mind set about this." if you have the proof to back those claims. Fact is that every race in a society tend to have unique views on certain situations, this is most likely due to personally experiences. A rich white person has probably never had trouble with law enforcement while a poor black person might have been repeatedly accused of shit he hasn`t done and thus becomes much more skeptical towards law enforcement.

If you think every person is a unique and perfect snowflake and that his race, job and economical status doesn`t effect and could his judgement then you have to be an idiot.

However I think this person is fucking retarded if he thinks the whole point is just to convict people every time. Know you...there are such things are innocent people. Hope he gets pulled over and a bag of coke in "found" in his car, would love to hear his thought going "Fuck, I didn`t do it and because of me I am going to jail!". I`d love the irony in that situation.

baldrodan : LVL 33: VP 4.2: said:

baldrodan

0 votes NegativePositive

107 days 18 hours ago...

To those saying this isn`t racist: Is it impossible for `blacks from low-income areas` to also be `smart people`? Or is defending blacks something people just don`t do on the internet?

^btw canchingo the movie was Runaway Jury

senk3i : LVL 31: VP 4: said:

senk3i

-3 votes NegativePositive

107 days 12 hours ago...

"What else could you expect from an adversarial system populated by people with no true internal moral compass. If we don`t individually learn and live compassion to the same kind of degree we learn other basic things like humour, happiness, love, and anger, then we will never see the end of this shit. You often hear "that guy has no sense of humor", but how seldom do you hear "that guy has no sense of compassion"? Especially in America. No one else could possibly make that prick into anything better, only himself, and he would have to be wise enough to know why he should do better. Common sense people. Basic emotional intelligence. Basic personal morality. If we don`t do it ourselves, no rule book will ever make up the difference."

What? Pfft, people suck @ morality. You want morality? One word - Jesus.

The End.

MANWHORE : LVL 34: VP 4.2: said:

MANWHORE

1 votes NegativePositive

107 days 10 hours ago...

How about winning the trial by presenting a good honest case you fucking asshole.

I wonder how many innocent people are in jail because of this fuckhead.

I would love to throw this fucker into a jail full of people he put away! and Id give him a 350lb black homosexual man with a big fat 24inch cock as his cell mate!

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