Florida jury could have done the right thing

On Saturday, this pedicab likely was the most expensive conveyance in Manhattan. The rate of $4 a minute explains why the operator doesn't have a passenger. In his pursuit of the obscure and the ridiculous, Road Warrior John Cichowski is preparing a column on the use of pedicabs to supplement mass transit between Manhattan and North Jersey. 

 By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

It's happened many times before.

A jury ignores the law and acquits or convicts a defendant -- in order to reach a verdict based on their own consciences.

According to some sources, the most famous jury nullification case is the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger, who was charged with printing seditious libels.

But in the 1980s, a jury acquitted Bernard Goetz -- the so-called Subway Vigilante -- of attempted murder and related charges after he shot four young men on a New York City subway train after one of them approached him and asked for money.

Corrupt Florida

We will probably never know why the six women in Florida didn't do the right thing on Saturday, and convict wannabe cop George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in a clear case of racial profiling.

Nor will we every know why The Record's reaction stories today (A-1 and A-4) and Sunday are silent on jury nullification.

Pathetic editors

The four reporters who wrote today's North Jersey reaction story work for head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza.

Sykes and Sforza have been at it so long -- and riveted to their computers for so many years -- they have lost touch with readers and the outside world. 

Their knowledge of the law and trials probably is non-existent, and at an editor-driven paper like The Record, woefully incomplete stories reflect that ignorance.

Jersey blues

Can you think of a more perfect or healthier snack than Jersey blueberries?

Leave it to Better Living to celebrate those who pervert the fruit, and recommend several artery clogging desserts with blueberries.

Many older readers surely will embrace them in between their annual visit to a cardiologist (BL-1).