Jury Competence Essay

654 Words2 Pages

Introduction
This essay seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis on the topic of jury competence. The jury system is an old tradition, predating England’s Magna Carta. The ideal of providing checks and balances in the legal system and allowing fair trial by peers is virtuous. Granting juries the power and discretion we do, directly expresses our faith in an institution that is central to our vision of democratic governance, and our confidence that jury verdicts can be fair, unbiased, and accurate. The vital role in which the jury plays in our legal system cannot be questioned, whether or not our confidence in the jury system is supported, is another question.

Research

There exists a substantiative body of research on the topic of jury …show more content…

The intervening decades have produced substantial changes that could, and probably do, have a bearing on the ability of juries to carry out the tasks assigned to them. The jury has come a long way since the Chicago Jury Project found that upper-class men dominate deliberations. Jury panels are now more representative of the population, were minorities and women have been brought into the jury room. These groups now appear to participate in jury deliberations and influence jury verdicts as much as their white, male counterparts. Changes have occurred in the nature of cases that are tried to juries, their complexity, and their length. Substantive laws have been altered, such as shifts from contributory to comparative negligence and the verdict of guilty but mentally ill. The kinds of evidence that juries hear have also evolved: Advances in technologies have increased the use of scientific evidence; and lawyers have become increasingly intricate in developing multiple theories of causality. The makeup of the jury, the evidence, and the context in which it operates today is very different from when the Project’s data were …show more content…

Concerns have also been raised about the quality and integrity of the outcomes reached by juries. Many critics believe that jurors are frequently biased, incompetent, and apathetic, and as such, render verdicts unjust. Jurors frequently misunderstand instructions given by the judge on legal issues, fail to recall critical evidence, and suffer from boredom and apathy during trials. Particularly in complex trials, jurors have trouble comprehending the evidence and that as a consequence; jurors reach verdicts that are

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