| | 8. In a famous recent trial, former football star O. J. Simpson was acquitted by a jury of the crime of murdering his wife. The key argument in the trial was that the prosecutions' key witness, the policeman who gathered most of the evidence in the case, was shown to have lied, and the jury apparently found the argument that he may have tampered with the evidence credible, at least to the extent of giving them a "reasonable doubt." In an apparently contradictory finding, a different jury found in a civil case ("lawsuit") that O. J. Simpson was responsible for the death of his wife, and assessed civil penalties. Since the standards of proof is "preponderance of evidence" in a civil case, however, it is much easier to prove civil liability to a jury than it is to prove criminal guilt, and hence these results are not necessarily contradictory. | | 8. In a famous recent trial, former football star O. J. Simpson was acquitted by a jury of the crime of murdering his wife. The key argument in the trial was that the prosecutions' key witness, the policeman who gathered most of the evidence in the case, was shown to have lied, and the jury apparently found the argument that he may have tampered with the evidence credible, at least to the extent of giving them a "reasonable doubt." In an apparently contradictory finding, a different jury found in a civil case ("lawsuit") that O. J. Simpson was responsible for the death of his wife, and assessed civil penalties. Since the standards of proof is "preponderance of evidence" in a civil case, however, it is much easier to prove civil liability to a jury than it is to prove criminal guilt, and hence these results are not necessarily contradictory. |
| − | 9. In 2007, vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was accused of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury . It is important to note that he was not accused of illegally revealing the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent working on | + | 9. In 2007, vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" [[Libby]] was accused of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to a grand jury. The grand jury was investigating the release of [[Valerie Plame]]'s identity, but Libby was not charged with that. Libby was convicted on 4 of 5 counts. |