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In reply to the discussion: Hay 6 idiots in Florida! Thanks a big hefty freakin' load! [View all]rusty fender
(3,428 posts)after college. I bought a book called, Legal Reasoning, and read it in order to help me make up my mind about applying to law school. What that book taught me was that 'legal reasoning' was the opposite of common sense. I could never change my concept of common sense to its opposite. My head hurt as I read that book because it was so incomprehensible.
I've served on a couple of juries and I have concluded that the 'jury instructions' are given so that juries won't use common sense when deciding the case. 'Jury instructions' tell juries how they must think about what the evidence shows, not what their gut instinct tells them about what the evidence shows.
'Jury instructions' is one of the problems in our judicial system. I wish that when people are selected for juries that they would do some basic research about the jury system and how, if they want to, can use their common sense reasoning when deliberating a case.