Although in this particular case it seemed that Scott Peterson was guilty, even if the evidence was just circumstantial, this type of evidence has sent many people to death, only to find out later that they were not guilty. This is actually a flaw of the jury system. The European continental system lets a judge appreciate whether a person is guilty or not of some crime. Since judges have to pass an exam in order to be appointed and since they are not elected for some period of time, their complete independence is assured. This way, an impartial judge would be indifferent to the media pressure and would weigh the evidence better than any jury, since a judge certainly has more experience than any juror. However, the American legal system chose to put ordinary people to judge other ordinary people, with the "guilty beyond reasonable doubt" principle as the only...
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