Race can be an important fact when selecting a jury. It’s important to have a jury of different racial, ethnic, gender or religious believes to helps limit racial discrimination.
If at any time the prosecutor or the defended feel discriminated by the jury, their attorney can challenge the jury by using the peremptory challenges in Which he or she has The right to challenge a potential juror without disclosing the reason for the challenge. Prosecutors and defense attorneys routinely use peremptory challenges to eliminate frim juries’ individuals who although they express no obvious bias, are thought to be capable of swaying the jury in an undesirable direction.
The prosecution and the defense are also protected by the Equal Protection Clause
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The prosecutor must provide a legitimate, non-discriminatory explanation for the challenge.
The judge must decide whether the challenge was purposefully discriminatory.
The “Batson challenge,” was created by the supreme court in process to remove a juror due to discriminatory bias in Batson v. Kentucky.
Race should be an issue when selecting a jury due to discrimination still in fact being an issue in society. other demographic factors that should be taken into consideration when building a jury should be social status. I feel that its important due to human nature of judging something or someone when one is not aware or can understand others struggles for money, even if used for the wrong reasons. For instance, if a jury is giving a verdict in a legal case that involved a robbery where the victim was killed accidently. I used this as an example since I know someone that is going through something similar. She was sentenced 70 years in prison for guilty by association in a murder case. She was the driver and the plan was to robe someone for drug money. I’m not saying its ok to robe or what she did was ok but when under the influence of drugs people tend to do crazy thing for their addictions. someone from an upper class (wealthy) is in the jury will he or she give the defendant a far
The plurality held that the decision of the deputy registrar to exclude Ms Lyons from juror duty was not unlawful under the A.D.A 1991 and instead vetoed the contention that the disclosure or jury contemplations to an interpreter was lawful. The argument was based on the phrase “perform the functions of a juror” included in Section 4 (3L) of the J.A 1995. Additionally, the plurality also rejected the appellant’s contention that Section 54 (1) of the J.A 1995 extended a grant of leave to an AUSLAN. Section 54 (1) of the J.A only allows for the officer of the court
The defense argued that the peremptory strikes were based off of race. Snyder appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, which found that the judge did not act unreasonably in dismissing the case as a Batson violation. This case parallels the case at hand. The prosecutor used their peremptory strikes to remove the black jurors for pretext reasons, not justifiable ones. In Foster’s case, the court used reasons such as the jurors being too close in age to the defendant, Foster, to strike a prospective juror.
However, when the jury selection process of his trial was underway, the State used peremptory challenges to strike every black prospective juror that was qualified- four to be exact. This selection process had two phases-
The Supreme Court of Canada consented to Kokopenace’s appeal. Justice Moldaver of the Supreme Court stated that although representativeness is quite a significant attribute of the jury roll, it is rather regulated to a certain extent (Pinder, 2015). The idea of representativeness does not regard every particular type of group to be
Jurors should not know anything about a specific case and not follow public affairs and read the news (Doc F). When a person is selected to be part of a jury, they have to say an oath stating that they will not use their emotions to determine the verdict of a trial. If a juror is caught using their emotions, they will be fined for a crime called perjury. Since there are twelve people in a jury, there is a variation of opinions when the jury decides a verdict. But, a judge is more professional and knows how to only use the evidence provided and be less biased.
Another reason citizens question juries is that they have bias from personal experience or the media. The defendant and the prosecution criticize the jury system because the actual jurors may not understand the situation from any point of view because they come from different lifestyles (Doc E). The American jury system is not a good idea anymore because juries are not experts in law, they have bias, and are not “a jury of peers”. Because jurors are not experts in law, they are subject to be
During the Boston Bombing trial, the court system retrieved three thousand citizens of Boston to be surveyed. It took those months to get the twelve adults they needed which is a really long time. In those three months where they were choosing a jury, they could have already completed the trial and the verdict would have been reached much quicker. Instead of waiting months for the jury to be selected, they could have rolled with one or two judges, three at max, to decide on the case. Juror selection is a long and complicated process that requires patience, money, and time.
Although some measures are taken to prevent this, many jurors are still prejudiced toward certain subjects and unable make a justified decision. It is said that bringing ordinary citizens into the world of court and law will help them be able to understand the justice system and teach them how to make a candid and unbiased decision. However, most of the jurors that are chosen do not possess the knowledge and experience necessary in order to reach a neutral and equitable verdict with the information and time given.(counter-argument) Many juries have made many controversial decisions such as the infamous OJ Simpson murder case. The jury acquitted the defendant, but many believe that the jury was biased.
Having an all-white jury is not a jury of your peers; this jury was mad at
It was a diverse jury as the county that it resides in. The gender composition of the jury consisted of 9 women and 3 men. The race of the jurors varied as well: 5 blacks, 3 whites, 2 Hispanic, and 2 Other (Indian, Middle eastern). The age range varied as well with 4 jurors appearing to be under 30 years of age and the other 8 jurors 40 years of age and higher. This information I present was observational but could not be verified.
Twelve Angry Men is in many ways a love letter to the American legal justice system. We find here eleven men, swayed to conclusions by prejudices, past experience, and short-sightedness, challenged by one man who holds himself and his peers to a higher standard of justice, demanding that this marginalized member of society be given his due process. We see the jurors struggle between the two, seemingly conflicting, purposes of a jury, to punish the guilty and to protect the innocent. It proves, however, that the logic of the American trial-by-jury system does work.
Arguing for the case that the race of a defendant should be a legally and morally appropriate factor in practicing nullification, Butler supports his argument by responding to the critiques that jury nullification betrays democracy, that rule of law doesn’t benefit African-Americans, that they have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws, and that jury nullification is antidemocratic. Hopefully this article will lead to change in the justice system with regards to the issues of race and jury
In "twelve angry men," we can see how prejudice has its own way with the cloak of justice. Personal prejudice is most strongly evident in the characters of Juror #3 and Juror #10. At the beginning of story, Juror #3 immediately claimed that the case was simple and the defendant’s guilt was obvious. Although he was not a new juror and ought to be experienced
These people are dangerous and don’t need big reason to kill someone.(This is an example of Prejudice too) Perception Discussion of elevated train (0:18:05) Could hear the argument (0:19:24) Discussion of lady's testimony (1:21:21) In all three situations Jurors organizes the information and translates it into something meaningful and comes to conclusion which results into making others to switch their vote from guilty to not guilty.. Representativeness heuristic "
This essay will briefly discuss the role of the jury and how it works, from the principle behind it, to the method with which members are selected, and to the powers available to jurors. Moreover, it will outline advantages and disadvantages of trial by jury, and it will point out a couple of ways which could ameliorate this type of trial. Trial by jury has been a part of the criminal justice system since the 12th century (Davies, 2015), it is considered an ancient right and a symbol of liberty (Hostettler, 2004). It creates no precedent and it can decide challenging cases equitably without making bad law, it also brings members of the public into the administration of justice and into an understanding of legal and human rights (Hostettler,