In the only case of general interest– if you want to call it even that—from the Kentucky Court of Appeals today, the Court reviewed a drug trafficking conviction following a jury trial in Jefferson Circuit, in which the Defendant took umbrage to a bailiff’s flip comment during jury selection. According to the opinion, the bailiff admitted to saying, in response to a juror’s question about what to do about jail or prison overcrowding, “if the jails are full and the prisons are full, we could shoot them.” The Court found that the statement had no effect on the trial jury or the outcome of the case.
EDITORIAL: There is a certain gallows humor in the courthouse, and always has been. We all need to remember to keep it “backstage,” I suppose. I’m sure this deputy is extraordinarily embarrassed about the event, and I do doubt that it had any effect. I’m also not sure Facebook constitutes “keeping it back stage,” so I will add no further comments of my own.
