Should a person 's guilt or innocence be determined by a jury of his or her peers? Some people believe both sides of the argument. A jury is selected to listen to evidence supporting and opposing the defendant. Then, the jury must further examine the information given to them and render a verdict. In twelve angry men the jury could have made an incorrect judgement and sentenced the defendant as not guilty when he actually was guilty. The purpose of a jury is to assess the evidence, establish the facts of a case and determine guilt, liability or innocence of the accused. Assessing the evidence is when the jury reviews the evidence presented by both the prosecuting and defense attorney. Establishing the facts of a case is when the jury examines …show more content…
Peter Van Koppen, law professor, explained in his 2009 essay that juries cannot debate, "technical issues beyond their aptitude." In cases where the accused is a well known person, members of the jury have been known to acquit the celebrity because of their notoriety. A probable example of this being O.J. Simpson. Judge Julius Howard Miner had previously complained that members of the legal profession were concerned that juries were acquitting “notorious criminals where the proof clearly indicated their guilt.” Erin Bransburu states that, “In late 2009, the U.S. was coming out of a recession. So, The New York Times published an article called “Call To Jury Duty Strikes Fear Of Financial Ruin.” These three quotations make it appear that a jury is not necessarily the most effective means in finding a person innocent or guilty. The old woman didn 't wear her glasses on in bed so she could only see a blur. The old man couldn 't have gotten to the door and down the hall in the short amount of time. The killer would 've had to switch hands holding the knife and the defendant was a lot more experienced with knives than that. In conclusion, a jury serves as a major part of our justice system. Its responsibilities include examining the evidence, verifying the facts, and reaching a verdict of either guilty or not guilty in each case. Research has shown that the jury system does not provide the most convincing methods for proving guilt or innocence. In Twelve Angry Men, after contemplating all of the evidence presented, they are without a doubt incorrect with the verdict they
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.
The jury system has cases where jurors are influenced by the media because it is almost impossible to find someone who has not heard about the case and formed a personal opinion already (Doc F). In widely known cases, jurors may have been influenced by outsiders and the media indirectly and directly. For example, in the People vs. O.J. Simpson case, the infamous decision might have been made because of the jurors discussing the case with people who they are not suppose to discuss it with. An argument can be made that jurors are specifically instructed not to discuss the case or read anything about it, but there is no way to verify that the jurors are actually following this rule. Jurors can also have personal bias because they are very different from the defendant or prosecution (Doc E).
The American Jury System offers the United States citizens an opportunity to be proven guilty or innocent when a crime has been committed. The twelve person jury system was established in England hundreds of years ago. Originally this system was made up of twelve men and this was huge because they had the power to go against what the judge wanted in court. There are many vital points as to why our American jury system is successful; jury trials by the numbers, ownership by jury members towards the accused, how reliable or unreliable evidence is viewed by jurors, gender balance and the detailed screening process in which jurors are selected.
As a result, the trial and the jury should be more objective. The jury's verdict on whether the defendant is guilty is essential to the operation of the jury system. Since their decision might have far-reaching effects, they have become an integral element of the trial process (Ruderman, 2020). However, this may also make jurors a troublesome part of the process since they may need to thoroughly examine the material or apply the right roof standards to hand down verdicts. 3 resolve these problems.
Jury service in adversarial court systems is an important civic duty and responsibility. Jurors have to understand and weigh up evidence presented, assess the credibility of witnesses and decide on the likelihood of certain events having occurred in the light of their own personal experiences. There has been increasing interest in whether deaf sign language users should be permitted to serve as jurors. In the USA deaf people have been serving as jurors in criminal trials since 1979. Legal challenges in the UK and Ireland have established that deaf people have the capacity to make decisions as jurors, and can sufficiently comprehend courtroom discourse and jury deliberations through a sign language interpreter (Heffernan, 2010).
a reasonable doubt. After the closing arguments from both the prosecution and defense attorney, the jury will deliberate. Jury deliberation takes place in seclusion, and jury instructions from the judge will be made clear, any evidence will be reviewed, testimony and witness credibility will be taken into consideration, as well as the charges. Subsequently, the jury will reach a verdict and the judge, defendants, prosecution attorney, defense attorney, and accused will reconvene in the courtroom for the verdict to be read aloud by the jury foreman (Gaines and Miller, 2011, p.189). Once the verdict has been read, the trial process has concluded.
e jury receives its direction from the judge. A jury will hear all the evidence during a trial. If the judge is unsure whether certain evidence is proper, the jury may be asked to leave while the judge hears arguments about whether certain evidence can be admitted. At the end of the trial, the judge will instruct the jury on the legal results, which must follow the different possible finding fact. After being given these fin
In the play Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose, we can see that prejudice gets in the way of truth. Many of the jurors that participated have let prejudice get in their way to see the truth and look at the real situation and facts, for example, Juror Three, who “is a very strong, very forceful, extremely opinionated man within whom can be detected a streak of sadism… is intolerant of opinions other than his own, and accustomed to forcing his wishes upon others.” He has a son that he identifies as a “tough guy”, which is one of the descriptions of the 19-year-old accused, Juror Three let the image of his own son be reflected on the boy and made him think unfairly. Getting to the bottom of a complex issue takes time and effort. At the beginning of the play, most jury members wanted to get over the case and go home as early as they could, but one of the jury members, Juror Eight, who was sure the boy was not guilty, took many hours to question the evidence and the case and murder itself, but he was not the only one as other jury members also spoke about what they thought in the past options, fairly quick, it was almost six in the evening and Juror Six wanted to leave to go to his family, it may have been more of an excuse to leave, but the jurors did not let him leave because they had gone far enough to decide where the trial was going
In the cartoon “Jury” by Keith Robinson, many of the jurors aren’t paying attention, which is human nature. “I wonder if the defense attorney is single” (Doc E). In this example, the juror was more focused on getting a date then the actual case. Many people drift off, even the best, most educated people in the world, drift off at times. Although people are saying that a judge would be better at reaching a decision on the case, a judge is also human.
To start off, the jury is an important role when it comes to going to trial. The Sixth Amendment gives defendants the right to an impartial trial. A jury trial usually consists of six to twelve personnel within the community. There is a process called voir dire in which the selected jury goes through a series of question to determine their mindset and to ensure that they aren’t favoring one side over the other. Both the prosecution and defense team have a chance to select and question the jury.
The Auld Report by Lord Justice (2001) suggests some cases should be without a jury. This is as Lord Justice views complex cases such as, fraud as too serious and difficult for juries to come to understand leading
A group of juror comprising of 12 men from diverse backgrounds began their early deliberations with 11 of ‘guilty’ and 1 of ‘not guilty’ verdicts. Juror 8 portrayed himself as a charismatic and high self-confident architect. Initially, Juror 1 who played the foreman positioned himself as self-appointed leader of the team in which has led his authority to be challenged as his leadership style lacked in drive and weak. In the contrary, Juror 8 is seen as the emergent leader considering his openness to probing conversations while remaining calm. Implying this openness to the present, it has become crucial that a good decision relies on knowledge, experience, thorough analysis and most importantly critical thinking.
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 "
They have to decide important matters, verdicts, without giving reasons about their decision (Hostettler, 2004); they can nullify a verdict even if the evidence is overwhelming (Joyce, 2013). Furthermore, juries are too expensive, prolong the length of the trial (Davies, 2015) and the guilty can walk free, while the innocent is convicted (Joyce, 2013). In addition, jurors should be representative of society, but it is not
The movie “Twelve Angry Men” illustrates lots of social psychology theories. This stretched and attractive film, characterize a group of jurors who have to decide the innocence or guiltiness of an accused murder. They are simply deliberating the destiny of a Puerto Rican teenaged boy accused of murdering his father. Initially, as the film begins, except the juror Davis (Henry Fonda), all other jurors vote guilty. Progressively, the jurors begin trying to compromise on a point that everybody agree because the decision of the jury has to be unanimous.