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Role of a jury in a criminal trial
Role of jurors in the crown court
Discuss the jury system
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This essay will explain how the jury system and democracy are interrelated. It should also be considered whether juries are intended to be, or indeed whether it is possible to describe and define what the public conscience could be. This essay would include also the consideration of public opinion and concerns justifying the use of juries in criminal trials. A group of people (typically twelve in number) when take an oath to give a verdict in a legal case by analysing all submitted evidence in court room known as a jury member. The trial is a method of reducing complexity of any case to protect a fair and a neutral administration of justice between two parties to the action. Trial board Consider all the matters in issue between two parties and also provides a final legal decision for the disputing matter. Under the adversary system, resolving a dispute by the jury trial method is fair because in here each party gets a chance to advocating their selves. The two main types of trials are civil trials and criminal trials. Jury hears both criminal or civil cases. Without criminal actions all the rest of actions are civil such as like to redress, or protect private rights. The plaintiff and the defendant are the main parties to a lawsuit. Civil cases are disputes between private citizens and other organizations. In civil trials the plaintiff seeks a compensation from court for the wrongs committed by the defendant. In a criminal case the state, or a city or county brought the case as a plaintiff and the accused person, who committing a crime called the defendant. The defendant is informed about his charge by a written document. The judiciary plays an important role in the justice system. A criminal judge or magistrate tries th... ... middle of paper ... ... the only time, that ordinary citizens become directly involved and make decisions, there are very important in terms of public policy, in terms of people's life and in terms of major issues. When people vote they voted to represent them. Therefore, the involvement is less direct. When a person sitting on a jury his decision will have immediate, important and repercussions for issues and individuals. The jury also uses the community values and public opinion to decide cases. After considering all these aspects, it seems fair to say that a jury hearing is more popular because it is a voice of general people and they represent public opinion during the hearing. The trial by jury method seems to be the fairest, impartial and the most natural way of establishing the person's guilt or innocence. Though a group of juries analyses the fact of any case so it is fair enough.
This chapter is mainly devoted to the jury selection process and how it is taken care
They weigh the evidence and apply the law. In the court system, criminal law is interpreted by a jury who are seen as expressing the sense of justice of ordinary men and women. Juries date back to the Middle Ages in England, and while membership, role, and importance have changed throughout the ages, they were part of the system of England’s Common Law. The purpose of the jury system was to ensure the civil rights of the ordinary citizen. It is important to remember that at the time, ordinary people had few rights.
Smith, William (1997) “Useful or Just Plain Unfair? The Debate Over Peremptories; Lawyers, Judges Spllit Over the Value of Jury Selection Method” The Legal Intelligencer, April 23: pg 1.
... of the juror’s and their sentencing or decision making in our study but further research could be carried out solely into how political attitude could also influence the jury-decision making.
At trial, your life is in the palms of strangers who decide your fate to walk free or be sentenced and charged with a crime. Juries and judges are the main components of trials and differ at both the state and federal level. A respectable citizen selected for jury duty can determine whether the evidence presented was doubtfully valid enough to convict someone without full knowledge of the criminal justice system or the elements of a trial. In this paper, juries and their powers will be analyzed, relevant cases pertaining to jury nullification will be expanded and evaluated, the media’s part on juries discretion, and finally the instructions judges give or may not include for juries in the court. Introduction Juries are a vital object to the legal system and are prioritized as the most democratic element in our society, aside from voting, in our society today.
The modern US version of a jury derived from ancient English law. It is said in the early 11th century, William the Conqueror brought a form of a jury system from Normandy that became the basis for early England’s juries. It was constructed of men who were sworn by oath to tell the king what they knew. King Henry II then expanded on the idea by using a group of white men with good morals to not only judge the accused, but also to investigate crimes. King Henry II had panels of 12 everyday, law abiding men; this aspect of it is much like modern juries. The difference is that these early jurors were “self-informing”. This means that they were expected to already have knowledge of the facts that would be presented in court prior to the trial. King Henry II’s first jurors were assigned the job of resolving the land disputes that were occurring in England. ...
They are the impartial third-party whose responsibility is to deliver a verdict for the accused based on the evidence presented during trial. They balance the rights of society to a great extent as members of the community are involved. This links the legal system with the community and ensures that the system is operating fairly and reflecting the standards and values of society. A trial by jury also ensures the victim’s rights to a fair trial. However, they do not balance the rights of the offender as they can be biased or not under. In the News.com.au article ‘Judge or jury? Your life depends on this decision’ (14 November 2013), Ian Lloyd, QC, revealed that “juries are swayed by many different factors.” These factors include race, ethnicity, physical appearance and religious beliefs. A recent study also found that juries are influenced by where the accused sits in the courtroom. They found that a jury is most likely to give a “guilty” verdict if the accused sits behind a glass dock (ABC News, 5 November 2014). Juries also tend to be influenced by their emotions; hence preventing them from having an objective view. According to the Sydney Morning Herald article ‘Court verdicts: More found innocent if no jury involved’ (23 November 2013), 55.4 per cent of defendants in judge-alone trials were acquitted of all charges compared with 29 per cent in jury trials between 1993 and 2011. Professor Mark Findlay from the University of Sydney said that this is because “judges were less likely to be guided by their emotions.” Juries balance the rights of victims and society to a great extent. However, they are ineffective in balancing the rights of the offender as juries can be biased which violate the offender’s rights to have a fair
A part of the society will judge criminals who commit crime and they will ultimately decide the fate of the individual. Fair and equal trials will be given. Every person on the jury will vote on the person’s fate. No individual will have authoritative say on the judgement of the person. These jurors will be replaced on every hearing. It is everyone's civic duty to take part in these adminstration of justice. Failure to show up with the intent of being part of the jury after five times will result in a predetermined
Now that we have discussed the pretrial occurrences, we get into the trial portion of the court process. This is the portion of the process in which both the defense and the prosecution present their cases to the jury, the judge, and the rest of the courtroom. To select a jury, the bring in potential jurors and ask them questions,
A jury system inquires fairness in a court case. A jury is “A group of citizens called to hear a trial of a criminal prosecution of a lawsuit, decide the factual questions of guilt or innocence or determine the prevailing party (winner) in a lawsuit and the amount to be paid, if any, by the loser” (Law.com Legal Dictionary 2014). As a jury member they are obligated to tell the truth and give an honest response. The jury system randomly selects 12 people for each court case. Once you are 18 years old and registered you can be selected for jury service. There are two categories of people who cannot serve and that is people who are excluded from the jury roll and who are exempt from jury service (NSW Government 2014). Those who are excluded are people with criminal convictions and who hold high positions in public office. Those exempted are due to their employment (NSW Government 2014). As a jury member you are expected to dress appropriately, be honest, and give fu...
A jury is a panel of citizens, selected randomly from the electoral role, whose job it is to determine guilt or innocence based on the evidence presented. The Jury Act 1977 (NSW) stipulates the purpose of juries and some of the legal aspects, such as verdicts and the right of the defence and prosecution to challenge jurors. The jury system is able to reflect the moral and ethical standards of society as members of the community ultimately decide whether the person is guilty or innocent. The creation of the Jury Amendment Act 2006 (NSW) enabled the criminal trial process to better represent the standards of society as it allowed majority verdicts of 11-1 or 10-2, which also allowed the courts to be more resource efficient. Majority verdicts still ensure that a just outcome is reached as they are only used if there is a hung jury and there has been considerable deliberation. However, the role of the media is often criticized in relation to ensuring that the jurors remain unbiased as highlighted in the media article “Independent Juries” (SMH, 2001), and the wide reporting of R v Gittany 2013 supports the arguments raised in the media article. Hence, the jury system is moderately effective in reflecting the moral and ethical standards of society, as it resource efficient and achieves just outcomes, but the influence of the media reduces the effectiveness.
Arguments For and Against Juries The right to a trial by jury is a tradition that goes right to the the heart of the British legal system. It is a right fiercely fought for. and fiercely defended at those times when its powers have been seen to be under threat as those backing reforms are finding. The tradition of being "tried by a jury of one's peers" probably has its origins in Anglo Saxon custom, which dictated that an accused man could be acquitted if enough people came forward to swear his innocence.
So the first reading that convinced me having a jury system was a bad idea was document F. This was a passage from a book called Roughing It by Mark Twain. He talks about a murder that happened in Virginia and how a prominent banker and valued citizen was denied to be on the case because he knew about the case beforehand. This circulated in my head and did not make sense to me, the jury would rather be full of unvalued citizens who have no
Mention the pros and cons of our jury system and possible alternatives of it. Also, identify the group dynamics of the jury members
Though most court cases in the U.S. is settled by a bench trial, those who go to a trial by jury have a greater chance of being prejudice towards the defendant which tends to be highly unfavorable and most the time leads to a guilty verdict. An example of this would be the case of Foster v. The State