widespread "disappointment'' and despair with the jury system, a retired California judge told Hamilton Rotarians yesterday.

Mr. James Nelson, who as a judge on Los Angeles Superior Court was once a colleague of the now famous Judge Lance Ito, said he personally had serious doubts about the merits of "a trial by a jury of your peers''.

"Here we have what should be the best the system has to offer and money can buy -- the best defence, the best prosecution, the best judiciary. Yet upwards of 50 percent of people would disagree with what happens in the end, which shows the level of trust people have in the system'' Mr. Nelson said of the Simpson trial.

Mr. Nelson, who was speaking on escalating violence, which he said was taking the world on a "superhighway to global destruction'', added: "In the US, people know if you keep the ball in play long enough, you can win.

"I have never been convinced the jury system is the way to go. We perceive that juries of peers will be fair and understanding, but often they are not.

The jury process is chancing it.'' Mr. Nelson, who also served on the California Court of Appeal, is the chairman of the US National Baha'i Assembly and has lectured around the world, including in India, China and Europe.

Mr. Nelson, likening the escalation of violence worldwide to a superhighway leading to world destruction, said there were "turnoffs'' or "barricades''.

But the judicial process was one of the last and most "flimsy'' of the barricades. "It is too little, too late to stem violence.'' Among the first turnoffs were what he termed "moral-suasion'', however, fewer were taking that turning. The next was "detection'' -- being discovered although that was made difficult by cover-ups. Coercion -- arrest and detention -- was the next turnoff -- and then prosecution and punishment, which often ended in people being more violent when they left prison.

"I am firmly convinced we are putting our resources at the wrong end of the rope, spending money on more prisons, more courts and tougher penalties.

Stricter mandatory punishments are not working.'' PHTO Mr. James Neslon.