The Sixth Amendment in the United States Constitution is where we are promised:
“the right to a speedy and public, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”
Michigan’s Constitution under Section 14 is very similar:
“The right of trial by jury shall remain, but shall be waived in all civil cases unless demanded by one of the parties in the manner prescribed by law. In all civil cases tried by 12 jurors a verdict shall be received when 10 jurors agree.”
Some people see this as a civic duty and are proud to serve because they are told to do so in the constitution. It is a very important responsibility that everyone should take seriously because the fate of another person is on his or her shoulders. Juries are there to decide “guilty” or “not guilty” based on the facts and evidence presented. This paper will
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First impressions start the moment the jury, judge, attorneys and offender are in the courtroom. This is a very influential moment. Jury selection/ deselection is a learned skill. It takes many years and trials to generate an elite list of questions that will create a perfect jury. In addition to the jury questionnaires that help attorneys get to know the jurors before they see them, it is very helpful to search their social media sites to gather information as well. It is important that each party keeps the trial moving along, juries get bored fast and most are already annoyed that they have to be there in the first place. In most cases the judges will start by questioning the jury with general questions. Then the prosecution has a
The Founding Fathers wanted the people of the United States to be in a democracy or self-government and established the jury system into the constitution. It is expensive and is a long process to start a jury trial. Also, jurors are not as professional as judges and can not determine a fair verdict. The Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) effect might also affect the verdict of the jury. The American jury system should not be used because of it not being cost-effective, the lack of experience of the jury, which leads to justice not being served, and the CSI effect impacting the
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
I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him!” By allowing every citizen to serve on the jury it can cause the jurors to get off topic and bring in personal matters not needed. If they were selective, verdicts would be made faster and wouldn't allow the jurors to be sidetracked. Those are the reasons why every American citizen should serve on the a jury.
“Other arguments against majority verdicts include that they compromise the criminal standard of proof of "beyond a reasonable doubt", given that at least one juror has a doubt; create a greater risk of convicting the innocent, leading to miscarriages of justice; and reduce public confidence in jury verdicts” (SMH 2005). However, a number of positives that occur after and during the trial largely outweigh the few issues that arise. There are far less hung juries. More than 80 cases resulted in hung juries during 2005. Majority verdicts as opposed to unanimous verdicts to better keep the integrity of the trial by helping prevent juror bribery or intimidation; it may also help stop rogue or stealth jurors (LY Lawyers 2017).
Television shows such as CSI gives them the belief that any type of evidence is prominent to coming to a conclusion. Jurors are accustomed to the idea that evidence does not lie, since that is what’s showed on television. From watching television shows and court cases movies gives jurors conception that judges, lawyer, and evidence are what bring to concluding their verdict. Jurors expect the evidence to be conclusive since the technology is so advanced. Law & Order, not pertaining to any specific case usually have witnesses, and at times jurors expect the eyewitness to have solid facts as to applying it to the verdict.
The 6th amendment of the constitution is not an amendment to be over looked but one to be thoughtfully used in all persecutions. This amendment was ratified for various reasons which are not very understandably simple. Many issues were held in the upcoming years before this amendment was ratified, but what exactly were the issues? American citizens have a great and unbounded benefit from this amendment which cannot be taken away. This amendment grants American citizens rights in many ways.
The potions of the Bill of Rights that have a particular significance to the administrations of justice are the Fourth Amendment, Sixth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment follows a excellent standard when it comes to our privacy. Our privacy should always be supreme until reasonable suspicion has shown guilt. Without this Amendment, a cop could search you anywhere at anytime based on his biased opinion of you.
This was determined from way back when America was first being created. Originally the U.S was control by the British but one of the main reasons for our independences from them other than the fact that the U.S. did not like their high taxes but also was because the jurors and their rights. According to the video “Annenberg Classroom: Juries” when a judge did not like the juries verdicts they were fine and threatened to have their nose cut off. American wanted their judicial to be fair and equal for all. However, they are wrong in the fact that all citizens should need to serve on the jury because people will misuse this power and will not truly understand their effect on the case and more importantly the people live on trail.
I think that I would like to be on a jury and experience what is required of a juror, I think everyone should be a member of the jury at least once in their lifetime. Having to experience the juries’ duties on a civil or criminal case, in some instance would be hard. Especially in a murder case involving children or battered women. When the judge gives you direction to please disregard that statement. How can you disregard information that you have heard?
Trials shouldn’t be done in secret way from public eyes because how can you call that fair. Libertyfirstfl.org states that the 6th amendment has multiple clauses within it. Speedy Trial Clause, Public Trial Clause, Right to a Jury Trial Clause, Confrontation Clause, Arraignment Clause, Compulsory Process Clause, and Right to Counsel Clause. Right to jury is crucial to having a fair and just trial. It picks random citizens to sit in a trial, they don’t choose people that might know the defendant.
This may cause the jury to be indecisive between what the actual case and what the media portrays it to be. The amount of media released for cases creates a negative impact within the courts and makes it difficult for a fair trial. When juries are uncertain about a case or a suspect, they result to social media platforms and news coverage that will provide them with more information and depth into the case. ‘’But if the case unfolds in the media, by the time a case gets to court, the supposedly impartial jury (or even the judge) may have already heard information and allegations (not admissible by court standards) that have caused them to seriously prejudice the parties’’. (Nedim, 2014).
According to Amendment VI, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed...” Now, to break that all down, this all means that everyone has the right to a fair trial by an impartial duty, and who are you? You guessed it, the impartial jury. And what is Amendment VI? Yup, a Constitutional right.
12 Angry Men Interview Interview script: Juror No. 8 [The interviewer stands and greets Juror No. 8. He takes off his coat and sits down.] Interviewer: [smiling gently] Hello No. 8, how are you?
This essay will look at the effects of a jury being abolished and a jury trial existing. There are certain requirements expected from jurors. These include: being aged 18 to 70 years of age, being registered on the electoral roll that they are randomly chosen on by a computer, and the individual has lived in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for 5 years after the age of 13. This allows the justice process to be fair and equal as all ethnicities have the opportunity of being randomly chosen allowing a bias free justice process.
In this paragraph, the advantages and disadvantages of trial by jury will be discussed. The main advantages are that juries introduce community values into the legal process and can influence the system (Joyce, 2013); they can achieve a sense of equity and fairness without enforcing unjust laws; in addition, juries are independent and neutral (Davies, 2015). Moreover, they guarantee participation from the public in a democratic institution (Hostettler, 2004), and represent the population thanks to the randomness with which jurors are decided (Davies, 2015). On the other hand, the most important disadvantages are that jurors have no prior contact with the courts, no training (Hostettler, 2004) and therefore they lack knowledge of law, courtroom proceedings (Joyce, 2013), and lack of ability to understand the legal directions (Thomas, 2010). Moreover, they must face evidence which is highly technical (Hostettler, 2004).