Tag: exist

In An Age Of Social Media Do Unbiased Jurors Exist? – Dzokhar Tsarnaev, (Boston Marathon Bomber) Supreme Court Appeal
SOCIETY

In An Age Of Social Media Do Unbiased Jurors Exist? – Dzokhar Tsarnaev, (Boston Marathon Bomber) Supreme Court Appeal

Thaddeus Hoffmeister, University of Dayton The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Oct. 13, 2021, in the case of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the lone surviving Boston Marathon bomber. While much of the news coverage has focused on whether the court will uphold the death penalty for Tsarnaev, the case also presents a fundamental question for this era: Is it possible to find unbiased citizens to serve on a jury in high-profile cases during an age of ubiquitous social media? This aspect of the case focuses on the “voir dire” process, which employs a French term that roughly translates to “speak the truth.” Voir dire occurs prior to the start of trial, when lawyers or the judge, depending on the jurisdiction, question prospective jurors to determine whether they harbor any kind of bias or prejud...
CULTURE, THE TRENDS

Broken Mirrors Cause Bad Luck – How Did The Superstition Start And Why Does It Still Exist?

Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina Every human culture has superstitions. In some Asian societies people believe that sweeping a floor after sunset brings bad luck, and that it’s a curse to leave chopsticks standing in a bowl of rice. In the U.S., some people panic if they accidentally walk under a ladder or see a black cat cross their path. Also, many tall buildings don’t label their 13th floors as such because of that number’s association with bad luck. The origins of many superstitions are unknown. Others can be traced to specific times in history. Included in this second category is a superstition that is between 2,000 and 2,700 years old: Breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck. It so happened that in both ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, reflected images wer...