The right to a trial by jury under ANY circumstances is NEVER to be sneezed at.
Exactly right, Artie. I recently was called for jury duty and, although I was not chosen, I would have been proud to serve. The jury system is far from perfect (which human endeavor is?) but it's the best that we have. The Founding Fathers knew that government cannot be trusted to do the right thing, and history in this country and others have vindicated this view so many times that a listing would be unbelievably long. The jury system obviates, as much as possible, having the prosecution be the sole arbiter of guilt.
Mistakes are made, yes, but that's preferable to the venal behavior that government continually demonstrates.
