So you just admitted you have nothing better to do than troll websites you disagree with. Alrighty then.

Good for you! I have changed my opinion on many occasions when I learn something new, or make a mistake in recollecting in my years here on Gawker, but I don’t see all that many other people in the same position acknowledge it as you did. They either don’t respond, or keep arguing..as if changing their mind is a kind…

What’s even sadder is we know how to stop it, we just don’t have the willpower to do it.

You’ve really hit on the crux of what’s going on here - that South Africa doesn’t have jury trials. A jury decision has to be reached unanimously, or if that’s impossible, the case has to be retried. It is an assumption of the American legal system that if you can get 12 people to agree to something, it must be true,…

It would be really nice if we could all come to the understanding that people indiscriminately killing other people are not representative of whatever group they are a part of. Would really raise the level of discourse.

No jury. It’s five judges overruling a pure ruling of law by a lower court judge.

I don’t doubt for a minute that he intended to kill his girlfriend, but jesus, the thought of an appeals court being able to upgrade or reverse a jury’s verdict just because they disagree is frightening. It makes me appreciate our criminal justice system a little more, no matter how broken it may be.

If a judge incorrectly applies the law why wouldn’t a higher court be able to change that decision? This isn’t a case of new evidence or new testimony, this is them saying “The court below us legitimately got this wrong as they applied the wrong legal standard”, which to me is a good thing.

Might want to check your math there, boss. There have been 355 mass shootings this year.

The original trial was not a jury trial.

Not sure if you read all the way through and perhaps I’m misinterpreting here but the article says it was a judge’s ruling that was overturned, not a jury’s. It seems fine to me that if one judge gets something wrong that a decision can be appealed. I think judge’s decisions get appealed in the US too.

So it is totally ok for the defense to appeal when a judge screws up, but not ok for the prosecution to appeal when the judge screws up? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Either side should be able to correct a flaw within the justice system. If this were a case of the prosecutor screwing up and then a…

I like to think I’ve successfully threaded this needle by hating everyone, all religions and all political viewpoints. And then, just for fairness’ sake, I engage in a lot of self-hate too. I’ve achieved the zen of hate: I see myself in the other and the other in me and I realize we are all absolutely fucking…

To achieve actual justice for the dead woman?

Advance note: Not a lawyer here, so I fully accept that my take might not be perfect from that perspective.-

This isn’t directed at you but I feel it’s important to note that not all older kids that have ended up in foster care are severely damaged. Kids end up in foster care for all kinds of reasons at all different stages of their lives. Kids that are raised in loving homes since birth can bottom out and become IV drug…

I don’t have the slightest idea. When we looked into it, years ago, it was significantly cheaper to adopt in India because we have dual citizenship (or the equivalent; technically it’s not dual exactly) and we could adopt as Indians then take the child back to the US as our child after a short time. Seriously, the…

Because if you want to thoroughly damage a kid, between 0-5 is when you do it. Many kids in the fostersystem are very damaged, and adoptive parents can be wary of taking on the challenge. I don’t blame them. Trying to mend a broken kid takes a lot more than love and enthusiasm. It can be done, but it takes a lot of…

I kind of gave my aunt the side-eye when she announced her second adopted child was from China (first is from Romania, adopted when he was 3 - 19 years ago), but I did have to applaud her for adopting a thirteen year old. And to my knowledge, her choice was partially because a close friend in similar shoes adopted…

And yet every bit of your post is accurate. I've considered having babies, but infants are boring and toddlers are a nightmare. So then I’ve often thought that I’d like to adopt a five year old but then, I’d have to find a really well-cared for five year old. So, a five year old of very loving parents who did all the…