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  • Too Old To Have Peers

    Lawyer: Client too old to get fair trial
    Elderly murder suspect's lawyer argues against young jury

    ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A 79-year-old woman set to be tried on charges that she fatally shot her 85-year-old ex-beau is being deprived of her constitutional right to a fair trial, her attorney said.

    The reason? Because the potential jurors are not old enough for her to be judged by a jury of her peers.

    As Lena Sims Driskell peered over her gold-rimmed glasses at potential jurors in her murder trial, there was no one in the crowd even close to her age.

    Driskell is nearly a decade older than the legal age for exemption as a juror in the state of Georgia, which is 70.

    Of the 58 potential jurors at the start of jury selection in Driskell's case Monday, all but five appeared to be younger than 65. A list of the potential jurors' ages was not immediately available.

    Some jurors were young enough to be Driskell's grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

    Juror No. 21, a tow-headed young man in a T-shirt and cargo shorts, appeared barely old enough to vote.

    "This is the youngest jury pool I've ever seen," said Driskell's attorney, Deborah Poole. "Most of these people look under 30. How does one have a trial when you are not able to include a whole class of people in the jury?"

    Couple had split
    Driskell is accused of fatally shooting Herman Winslow as he read the newspaper at the senior citizens home where the two lived.

    After dating for a year, police said Driskell became angry when Winslow broke off their relationship and started seeing another woman. (Watch what cops said about her quick confession -- 1:11)

    Driskell is charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony for Winslow's death on June 10, 2005.

    Police say she was wearing a hairnet, stockings, a bathrobe and slippers, when she confronted Winslow at his apartment in Hightower Manor, where she was also a resident.

    The former couple had recently returned from a getaway to Daytona Beach, Florida, before the split, according to police.

    After Winslow complained, a security guard tried to calm down Driskell, but when he turned around, Driskell drew an antique handgun she had hidden behind her back, put the gun to Winslow's head and fired up to four times, Atlanta Detective D.B. Mathis said.

    "I did it and I'd do it again!" Driskell was quoted as yelling to the officers who found her waving the gun and holding her finger on the trigger when they arrived.

    At the jury selection Monday, only three potential jurors said they would be unable to pass judgment on someone older than themselves.

    And when asked whether there were any members of advocacy groups for elderly people, none raised a hand.

    Fulton County Superior Court Jury Clerk Jennifer Lawson said that while senior citizens are not excluded from jury service, any person 70 or older may be excused from jury duty with the submission of an age affidavit.

    Opening statements in the trial could begin Tuesday. The trial is expected to last no more than three days.

    Senior Assistant District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. Prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty.
    http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/19/ge....ap/index.html
    "To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."-Sholem Asch

    "I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."-Earl Warren

    "I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally

    "He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control

  • #2
    I would file a counter suit against the defense for age discrimination.
    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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    • #3
      Does that mean children can never get a fair trial, as you must be 18 to serve on a jury?
      No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
      I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
      even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
      He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

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      • #4
        Good point.

        But children are special because their mental capacities are not advanced enough to warrant their ability to try another child. Yet again, the same might be said for some older senior citizens as well.
        "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man

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