{"id":10474,"date":"2009-01-13T21:39:33","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T02:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/?p=10474"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:12","slug":"olfactory-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2009\/01\/13\/olfactory-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"olfactory justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> The Judge Nose Best<\/strong><\/em>: Can a judge dismiss an unsworn juror because “her strong body odor was negatively affecting the other jurors”?\u00a0 Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Nancy Staffier-Holtz thought she could, but defendant Rakeen Young objected, arguing that the juror was of his race.\u00a0 Noting that she indeed noticed the smell out in the lobby, Judge Staffier-Holtz stated:<\/p>\n

“[G]iven the strength of the body odor, I’m satisfied that the other jurors would be put at a distinct disadvantage in their efforts to concentrate.”<\/p>\n

When Young contested the point on appeal, the Massachusetts Appeals Court agreed with the trial court judge.\u00a0 In <\/em>Commonwealth vs. Rakeem Young<\/em><\/a> (Dkt. 07-P-146, Jan. 9, 2009), the Appeals Court explained that the trial judge had the right to dismiss a juror “in the best interests of justice.”<\/p>\n

“We hold that the judge’s dismissal of the juror was not an abuse of her discretion. Here, the jury had not yet been sworn, and therefore, the judge had no duty to hold a hearing or find an extreme hardship. See G. L. c. 234A, \u00a7 39. The judge made sufficient findings on the record regarding her concern that the juror’s body odor would affect the ability of the other jurors to concentrate. Accordingly, the defendant’s claim fails.”<\/p>\n

As Bob Ambrogi said at Legal Blog Watch <\/em>yesterday, “The moral of the case: Justice may be blind, but it retains a healthy sense of smell.” (“The Case of the Stinky Juror<\/a>,” Jan. 12, 2009)<\/p>\n

T<\/em>hat’s more than enough punditry for me today.\u00a0 Thanks goodness, Master Issa will help by putting in his two scents:<\/p>\n

\n

at the edge
\nof a stinking well…
\nplum blossoms<\/p>\n

smelling like sake
\nsmelling like piss
\nchrysanthemums<\/p>\n

on honorable Buddha’s\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>
\nhonorable nose
\nan icicle<\/p>\n

\n

… by Kobayashi Issa<\/a>, translated by David G. Lanoue<\/p>\n

H<\/em>ad enough of the odious olfactory theme?\u00a0 Four years ago today, we introduced our readers to the pleasantly aromatic haiku professor-publisher-poet Randy Brooks<\/a>, with these poems:<\/p>\n

hands on the rail . . .
\nthe humpback whale
\ndoesn\u2019t resurface<\/p>\n

funeral procession . . .
\nsnowflakes blowing
\ninto the headlights<\/p>\n

two lines in the water . . .
\nnot a word between
\nfather and son<\/p>\n

grandpa drags his daybed\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>
\nto the front porch. . .
\nmockingbird\u2019s songs<\/p>\n

missing in action
\nshe dusts off his guitar
\nreturns it to the shelf<\/p>\n

… by Randy Brooks<\/a> – from World Haiku Review, Vintage Haiku of Randy Brooks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Judge Nose Best: Can a judge dismiss an unsworn juror because “her strong body odor was negatively affecting the other jurors”?\u00a0 Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Nancy Staffier-Holtz thought she could, but defendant Rakeen Young objected, arguing that the juror was of his race.\u00a0 Noting that she indeed noticed the smell out in the lobby, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[555,3513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haiku-or-senryu","category-lawyer-news-or-ethics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-2IW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12068,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10474\/revisions\/12068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}