MJ, Robert Blake, OJ and Scott Peterson

What good are juries when they are easily manipulated through the media and the opportunity of profit following a highly publicized trial. What good are witnesses that look to line their pockets following those same highly publicized trials?

While many of the juries are filled with noble, upstanding citizens like you and me, the balance are the gold diggers looking to profit before the media interest wanes. Scott Peterson is the latest. OJ was the worst. Robert Blake jurors are yet to take over. Then we will see the Michael Jackson profiteers appear.

My folks are routinely called for jury duty. Since moving to Utah, I have not been called to perform that duty. After seeing the process in the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building, Compton, and several other courts in Southern California, I am beginning to form my opinion that perhaps professional jurists are the best method to prevent this adulteration of what was once a noble process. The media have corrupted this. Not the jurists. The jurists are responding to the Hard Copies of the world. That is what they see on the evening news and that is what they've come to expect when serving on the trial of the decade.

While the media is necessary for coverage of our criminal system, it has turned into a circus. We cannot depend on the media covering any trial without some sensationalism to draw viewers or sell newspapers. What can we do as law abiding citizens to change the corruptions?