Last year, the Court of Appeal in Brisbane, Australia, upheld an appeal by a man jailed for allegedly committing arson.
A new trial will be set for him later this year, but reasons for the court’s decision were made public earlier this month.
Officially, the appeal was upheld because the accused had not been given the chance to present expert opinion on some vital evidence.
What’s more interesting though was a second grounds for appeal that was not considered by the court, though it would have been had the case not already been decided.
Apparently, one of the jurors was a psychic medium. She told the jury speaker, and then the judge, that though she was not trying to use her psychic powers to make judgment on the case, she had a strong sense of what really went down with the fire.
Though the defense requested that the entire jury be dismissed in case the psychic had influenced them beyond the evidence at hand, the judge decided to dismiss only the psychic herself.
I’m particular interested in this case because a number of years back, I was deemed ‘unacceptable’ as a jury member because I told the court I was a Tarot reader.
It was a bit insulting at the time, especially since it was the other jury members who rejected me, not the lawyers or the judge.
Ultimately though, it was probably a blessing in disguise. I didn’t really want to sit on a jury.
And truth be told, if they were worried I might pull cards on the case, they were probably right to be concerned. I’m sure I would have controlled myself from doing so, but it would have been very tempting.
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