Sunday, January 25, 2009

Why Trial By Jury?

This post has been moved to the Toxins Of Power blog.

5 comments:

  1. If the bushies are ever prosecuted for crimes they can demand a jury trial, lawyers, and full court access.

    Something they denied thousands of folks during their reign of abuse.

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  2. This is a subject matter that causes mysterious and/or unexpected aliances between the left and the right.

    In one example case, Apprendi v New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), we find Justice Scalia voting with most of the 'liberals'.

    To wit: "Stevens, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Scalia, Souter, Thomas, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined. Scalia, J., filed a concurring opinion. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Scalia, J., joined as to Parts I and II. O'Connor, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Kennedy and Breyer, JJ., joined. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., joined"

    The, what seems to me obvious, decision held: "the Sixth Amendment's notice and jury trial guarantees require that any fact other than prior conviction that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be charged in an indictment, submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The Fourteenth Amendment commands the same answer when a state statute is involved."

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  3. For those interested in how juries historically worked, please see http://fija.org/

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  4. Despite the overall strong arguments given for jury panels, I think it's good to have the choice of judge and jury. If you can get a good judge, then you don't have to worry as much about those everyday people getting that "expert" testimony wrong.

    It also seems that lawyers only get a limited amount of panel nominees to toss out. If by chance, the defendant gets mostly a slanted jury pool, and that is quite possible depending on location, the chances of a fair shake diminish.

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  5. socrates,

    Yep, there is "gerrymandering" of juries too ... in any human system there will be an attempt to subvert the system.

    Fortunately we can limit that to a case by case basis if we can keep the system running reasonably.

    And yes, the accused can waive the jury trial and choose to have a judge only trial. And yes, sometimes that is best.

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