Judges must be careful of legal abbreviations -- as one Florida judge found when he explained a bad jury verdict as resulting from prejudice against the victim. He thought that the jury did not see the victim as human because the victim was a low-life criminal. But the case concerned blacks so the judge himself got put on trial for making a "racist" comment!
"When Broward Circuit Judge Charles Greene used an acronym that attorneys said had racial overtones, he found himself in a snafu. Literally and figuratively. Last week, the state agency that polices judicial conduct found that when Greene uttered the acronym "NHI" (short for "no humans involved") he had no intention of making a racial epithet, nor did he think it would be perceived as such, according to Greene's attorney, Dale Sanders.
Greene, 51, used the "NHI" term in April after jurors acquitted a defendant of attempted murder. The victim, defendant and witnesses were all black.... That concept refers to jurors' inability to care about or sympathize with the victim and witnesses, Greene said.
After a four-day trial, the jurors reached their verdict in less than 30 minutes, Greene said, adding that he was trying to explain to a prosecutor who had a strong case why jurors might acquit the defendant. "To me, it simply meant that because of his criminal lifestyle, the jury failed to recognize the humanity of the victim and thus denied him justice," Greene explained in an affidavit presented to the Judicial Qualifications Commission.
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