Back in the worst days of Jim Crow, Southern white juries used to regularly practise jury nullification. This would happen when a white person was charged with killing a black person, and the jury would sweep the crime under the carpet.
This happened a few months ago in Shenandoah, Pa., where two white youths were acquitted on charges of beating Luis Ramirez, an undocumented immigrant to death. (They were later convicted on misdemeanor assault charges.) The two youths accosted Ramirez in a park and beat him while they shouted racial epithets. Now it turns out the case has been picked up by federal prosecutors, who have indicted five men in the case.
Three members of the Shenandoah Police Department were included in the indictment and are facing charges of obstruction of justice, witness and evidence tampering and making false statements. (One of the police officers was dating one suspect's mother.) I know police officers have a tough job, but how is the public expected to have any faith in officers of the law who willingly break the law? It's sad, but these cases do not surprise me any more.
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