A Rooney Moment is my own way of honoring, and to some small extent continuing, the great commentaries I enjoyed listening Andy give.

Following a full jury trial in the New Jersey Superior Courts, a man charged with committing the beating death and sexual assault of a nine-month old girl, was acquitted of all crimes charged against him. While no one wants to see these types of horrific crimes go unpunished, the public reaction of some of the 'commentators' to the published article, and to some extent that of the media for the title they gave to the article, is illustrative of the lack of knowledge that the public actually has of the protections our system of justice gives to those charged with committing a crime. As an experienced criminal defense lawyer in NJ, I know that our system of justice has worked the way it is supposed to.

The jury acquitted this man, SO GET OVER IT ALREADY! The man stood trial, the State put it's best foot forward by having an experienced trial prosecutor represent the State (she is truly a very good trial lawyer) and the witnesses testified in accordance with what the State believed to be the facts of the case. That is our system of justice. We sit in judgment of our fellow citizens. The State has the burden of production and the defendant has no obligation to do anything. (Yes Virginia, the defendant in a criminal case actually does have the constitutional right to remain silent). The jury deliberated four hours (that is not a short deliberation in a criminal case, despite the use of the word 'only' in the news article to denigrate the efforts of the jury). I for one thank and applaud the efforts of the jury. Without those efforts, you and I (as well as the man charged in this case) would have no protection from the 'mob' justice typified by the idiotic comments our fellow citizens left in response to the article. Maybe they want to change the protections we all enjoy, but I for one am certain that our system of justice works, and I am NOT willing to give up my rights to be tried by the public 'mob'.

As a last note, this Rooney Moment is not intended as a legal commentary, but as a social one. Our constitutional rights belong to all of us, and as strong as they are, they are weakened when the ignorant among us allow their opinions of the types of charges filed against a defendant to determine guilt, rather then honoring our system of justice as being the best in the world.