NSW Justice = Paper/Scissors/Rock

This is a picture of the 12 Angry Men who were in the same titled movie. Those of you who haven't had the honour, along with an introduction by Bill Collins who weeps with the gayest of joy, may in fact wonder why these men were angry?

They were angry because jury duty had gone on too long. They wanted to go home. But they couldn't because those are the rules. Has to be unanimous.

11 of these handsome young stars, including Jack Klugman aka Oscar Madison aka Quincy MD, knew the defendant was guilty. But one angry man knew he wasn't. And it turned out it was right. After much anger and deliberation, juror 8 proved that the wrong man was in the box.

Too bad if that was in NSW these days. That old rot about 12 of your peers clogs up the courts, so 11-1 is now good enough. A hideous example of this is with Dianne Brimble who died on a cruise and whose companion that evening is now being tried for manslaughter, amongst other things. But the jury can't make up its mind, so apparently, we go to plan B : 11-1.

Yes this has been going on for nearly 4 years, it happened to this man too just recently, but why should we stop at 11-1? When will 10-2 be OK? What about best of 5 rounds of darts at the nearest pub where the jury's sequestered? Make it a drinking game. What a joke. Be nice to the people in uniforms, people. It's all part of being in the police state.