BOO BOO THE FOOL T SHIRTS


©Wendell Griffen, 2020
Little Rock, Arkansas
February 5, 2020

When I was a child there was a popular television cartoon show about Yogi the Bear.  Yogi and his sidekick Boo Boo were bears in Jelly Stone Park.  In the show, Yogi often got into trouble because he thought he was “smarter than the average bear.”  Boo Boo sometimes tried to act as his conscience.  Yet Boo Boo typically went along with what Yogi said or did - even when it was ridiculously wrong – because Yogi thought he was “smarter than the average bear.”   Now when I now hear people make ridiculous assertions I occasionally respond that although I wear a T shirt, it does not read “Boo Boo the Fool.”  I don’t believe obviously untrue claims merely because other people consider themselves “smarter than the average bear.”

The U.S. Constitution requires that the President of the United States shall be convicted on impeachment charges only when two-thirds of the Senators present agree.  There are currently 100 Senators, so 67 Senators must agree in order to convict Trump.  All signs indicate that 67 Senators will not vote to find Trump guilty of either charge.  When that happens, Trump, his followers, and media pundits will declare that he was acquitted.  They will be wrong.

The term “hung jury” describes decision-makers who are unable to reach consensus to render a decision or reach a verdict.  If 67 (two-thirds) of the Senate agree that Trump is not guilty of abuse of power or obstruction of Congress, he will be acquitted of those impeachment charges.  If 67 Senators agree that Trump is guilty of one charge or the other, he will be convicted.  There is no verdict – to convict or acquit – unless 67 Senators agree. 

Politicians, media pundits, and others who say that Trump will be acquitted because 67 Senators will not agree that he is guilty of the impeachment charges may, like Yogi Bear, think they are “smarter than the average bear.”  However, I’m not Boo Boo the Fool.  I know a hung jury means no verdict could be reached and results in a mistrial.  A mistrial will not mean Trump has been acquitted for the same reason it will not mean he has been found guilty.  The law treats a mistrial as invalid.

The mistrial today will not invalidate the impeachment charges against Trump.  A mistrial won’t prevent another trial on those charges.  A mistrial won’t hinder the parties from searching for additional evidence to prepare for another trial. 

After today’s mistrial, House impeachment managers can go to court and seek to enforce subpoenas for the witness testimony and documents Donald Trump refused to honor.  Federal courts can issue rulings on the validity of the subpoenas.  If the courts rule that the subpoenas are valid, the testimony and documents can yet be obtained. Then the impeachment managers can seek another trial and the testimony and documentary evidence Trump has concealed can be admitted into evidence.    

Donald Trump can and will claim that he has been acquitted today even though that will obviously be untrue.  Media pundits and politicians can and will inaccurately say he has been acquitted even though that will obviously not be true.  However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, and the other impeachment managers are not wearing Boo Boo the Fool T shirts. 

Schiff was formerly a federal prosecutor.  He knows how to prepare for a retrial.  Schiff will discover additional evidence relevant to the impeachment charges.  I won’t be surprised, therefore, if he seeks another trial after he gets the evidence Trump has concealed and which the Senate shamelessly voted not to consider thus far. 

Gloating by Trump, his Senate enablers, and his sycophants about the expected vote in the Senate today will not end his impeachment woes.  Instead, it may spur Schiff and the other impeachment managers to prepare for another trial on the impeachment charges.  Good trial lawyers don’t wear Boo Boo the Fool T Shirts.  Neither should the rest of us.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said the moral arc of the universe swings wide, but always bends towards justice.  Let those of us who believe in justice and despise Trump’s impeachable conduct watch, wait, and hope.  The arc of the universe still bends towards justice.  Trump's mistrial can't stop it.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE LAMENTABLE AND INEVITABLE ISRAELI-HAMAS WAR

  ©Wendell Griffen, 2023   Mark Wingfield of Baptist News Global has written an analysis of the current war between Israel and Hamas. I am quoted in it along with others who hold shared and different perspectives.  https://baptistnews.com/article/in-this-war-there-are-no-good-guys/ The analogy Ashlee Wiest-Laird shared in Wingfield’s piece is appropriate. Nobody should expect people whose land has been stolen, who've been locked in a room of their house, denied basic protections and civil rights, attacked at will by a stronger, US financed, stocked, and cheered military that is the fourth largest in the world, and whose 75-year plea for justice has been belittled, to decide that fighting their way out of the hellish place they have been forced into is unreasonable.  I wrote a long piece for Baptist News Global in May of this year to mark the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (meaning "catastrophe") that provides the historical context for the war now bei
Read more

THE CRUEL DISMANTLING OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION (DEI) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

  THE CRUEL DISMANTLING OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION (DEI) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS © Wendell Griffen, 2023   In an email message sent on Tuesday, June 13, Dr. Charles Robinson (Chancellor at the University of Arkansas flagship campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas) announced that staff and resources from the campus Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) would be reallocated to other campus offices beginning this fall. I’m posting a link to the message Chancellor Robinson sent the campus so you can read his words. https://chancellor.uark.edu/key-communications/150-forward-update-from-chancellor-robinson.php Robinson sent his message two weeks before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided, by a 6-3 vote, that the admission policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) are racially discriminatory because both schools include racial identity among the factors considered in determining who to admit. The SCOTUS decis
Read more

IT’S TIME TO VOTE AS FREE PEOPLE

  ©Wendell Griffen, 2024 Early voting for the Arkansas primary elections begins February 20 across Arkansas, and March 5 is Election Day.   So, candidates are working hard to attract attention and influence voting decisions by voters. This essay is my effort to inform voters in Arkansas about election contests involving candidates for positions on the Arkansas Supreme Court, Arkansas Court of Appeals, circuit courts, and district judges. Because judicial candidates are the least well known of all political office contenders those of us who understand what judges do must help voters decide whether to support certain candidates over others. I have been a licensed attorney in Arkansas since 1979. I am also a retired state court judge who served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals (from 1996 through 2008) and as a Circuit Judge (from 2011 through 2022). I taught law   at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law from 2009 through 2011. I share this information so rea
Read more