Yeah, Right, Whatever

I always thought that a jury verdict was a jury verdict. You could appeal it to a higher court, but that was about it. Right?

Well... I guess not...

A Ketchikan judge on Monday set aside guilty verdicts returned by a jury against the activist group Greenpeace and the captain of its boat for violating state environmental regulations during a 2004 visit to Alaska.

District Court Judge Kevin Miller provided little reason for his unusual order acquitting the Greenpeace defendants except that, in his judgment, the evidence did not support the guilty verdicts.

From what I could tell from the article, it was a pretty open/shut case. Either they had the proper paperwork completed or not. Obviously, 12 reasonably rational Alaskans looked at the evidence provided and reached a logical conclusion after due consideration. If there was a complete lack of credible evidence, why didn't the judge throw out the case before it went to the jury?

I hope the AG appeals this. This is beyond activism. The idea that a judge will toss out a verdict just because he doesn't like it is... frightening.