Juries need 12 cognizant members

To the editor:

With deceptive court rules and practices, lawyers and judges in collusion have twisted civil justice into arenas of extortion.

Intellectually lacking, brainwashed jurors listen in awe to the pontifications of judges giving instructions to decide a case on the basis of these senseless buzz words: "beyond a reasonable doubt," or "a preponderance of evidence."

Cognizant jurors ignore this nonsense and decide with a simple "guilty" or "not guilty."

In Florida, a six-member jury in a $10 billion trade secrets lawsuit against Motorola, Inc. recently told the judge that they were deadlocked. Only six jurors to decide a $10 billion lawsuit?

Lawyers know that it is much easier to manipulate six jurors than 12 jurors into making awards to plaintiffs.

All lawyers --plaintiffs' and defendants'-- in civil cases want and plan for the plaintiffs to win, especially in class actions. If plaintiffs do not win, there is no use for lawyers on either side.

When honest, fair and impartial citizens gain control of the state and federal judicial systems all juries will have 12 members. There will not be any jury majority awards in civil lawsuits and all jury decisions will be unanimous.

When this practice is adopted in civil trials, it will put many lawyers behind McDonald's hamburger counters, limit corruption in the courts and greatly increase the probability that many lawyers will never get an award verdict.

What a great idea.

Charles Sullivan
Waterloo