All three guilty of murder.

[Hortensis]

65. Well, it's a lot better and worse according to local cultures.

Right? More, it's important to remember the extremely important role our federal legal system plays in keeping local governments from becoming too representative of the flaws of local authorities. Our federal laws set a generally high standard according to the times, even with Republican sabotage every time they get the power. Failures are mostly in application.

That said, we live in GA these days, and I believe the jury would have returned the same general verdicts for a case that was only reported locally, a testiment to both the jurors and to the fact that their choices were channeled and defined by GA's legal system. I mean, come on. The evidence was extremely strong.

The big problem with selecting a jury was that, overwhelmingly, people already believed Arbery had been hunted down and murdered. (What does that say about those manipulators who claim to be relieved that a white southern jury didn't demand Arbery be dug up and lynched?)

Now, the initial attempts of local authorities to shield the murderers from justice -- one of whom was a former deputy sheriff and investigator for the DA's office -- if not expected were at least not surprising. This is GA and conservative authoritarianism runs strong, nowhere more so than in authorities themselves. A third of Georgians are black, btw, and many communities run by black-dominated governments.

In any case, low expectations lead to low standards, and low standards never create high ones. I think we need to know what we do right so bad people can't drag our expectations down to what works for them.