[soon2bepro]

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Given that. What chance of innocence in your mind is an acceptable risk?

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What's the punishment? The harsher, the less acceptable risk.

I'm going to go with 1/25,000 chance of innocence for death penalty, 1/1,000 for life imprisonment (with possibility of parole after say 30 years), 1/200 for 10 years inprisonment, 1/50 for 5 years inprisonment or less. Of course I'm assuming the sentence could be adjusted a posteriori, that is, you can change from death penalty to 5 years inprisonment if after the trial the jury decides there's a 1/150 chance that the defendant is guilty but not a 1/10,000. I'm also assuming sentences could be reversed fairly easily in the face of new evidence. (maybe not in the death penalty case [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

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Also should it be OK for different jury members to have different opinions on this matter?


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It should be irrelevant. The jury should simply state what's the chance of innocence they've calculated. (not that I think the whole jury system is best, but that's not the point here)