Reply #23: Let me clarify - the "correct" verdict (IMO) has little to do with what "the law" says. I

[T Wolf]

view the goal of the justice system to be to reach justice.

If the case involved a law I did not agree with, there would be no conviction, no matter what "evidence" the cops and DA dreamed up. To me, it is more than an intellectual exercise in interpretation of bullshit verbiage created to maintain a certain status quo situation.

On the other hand - in a civil case against a polluting industry, even if "legally" they could get around consequences for dumping poison in a river (e.g.), I would vote to convict.

The law is not an end in itself, but rather, a means to an end. That end is justice. And we each define justice according to our own values.