Brittney Pope Kyle Evans Intro to Criminal Justice 29 November 2012 All about Juries Have you ever wondered what the purpose of a jury is and where it all started at? Well the idea of jurors started back in England as early as the year 1066. These jurors started off as neighborhood witnesses who passed judgment only on the basis of their morals. According to Justice Byron White, “a jury is to guard against the exercise of arbitrary power to make available the commonsense judgment of the community as a hedge against the over-zealous or mistaken prosecutor and in preference to the professional or perhaps over conditioned or biased response of a judge. Juries were started to establish some justification for the people as stated in the constitution,”
What is a jury? A jury is group of persons summoned and sworn to decide on facts at issue (Meinhold and Neubauer). The Jury system is made mandatory by law, which calls on citizens to decide on disagreements, and matters in court. The jury is in fact one of the most important and critical aspects of the American legal system. All citizens are given the right to a fair jury trial, because the defendant is innocent until proven guilty.
The jury returned with a verdict of guilty but the defendant’s conviction was quashed on appeal because of the judge’s interference. Modern Day Use of Juries Only a small percentage of cases are tried by Jury today. Juries are used in the following courts: Court | Type of Case | Role | Number of Jury | Crown Court | Serious Criminal Cases: e.g. murder, manslaughter, rape | Decide the verdict - Guilty or Not Guilty | 12 | High Court | Defamation, False Imprisonment, Malicious prosecution and any case alleging fraud | Decide Liability. If fined for the claimant also decide amount of damages.
According to FindLaw.com, 2012, the Sixth Amendment states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.” The Fifth Amendment declares that “no individuals shall be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of the law” (FindLaw.com, U.S. Constitution: Fifth Amendment, 2012). An individual who receives the obligation or privilege of a jury trial before a judge is exercising his or her Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights of the United States Constution. As mentioned earlier not every criminal case makes it to a jury trial. However, criminal defendants do receive his or her due process rights. These rights are handed down to the states from the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constution.
The Magistrate also heard evidence from the defendants’ legal agent 3. for consideration. Prosecutors’ charges against the defendant were proven, and the defendant is found guilty, without a conviction noted on the defendants’ criminal record, and a punishment at the Magistrates discretion, is then delivered by the Magistrate. The two police prosecutors sat opposite each other at the left end of the bar table, one having his back to the Magistrate. Their role was to present the evidence against the defendant to the Magistrate, and the charges that the defendant had been charged with, and under what section they had been charged, and at times withdrawing charges after consultation with the defendants’ legal agent. I observed the police prosecutors consulting the defendants’ legal agent on many occasions discussing alternatives to a prison sentence and what the prosecutors felt was fair in way of punishment for this defendant.
Selection of a Jury Selection of a jury begins with the voir dire oath is administered. Following the oath counsel will question the possible jurors. Next there are counsel challenges for cause and for peremptory. Then the jury selection is completed for civil and most criminal trials there are six jurors plus two alternates; for certain offenses there are 12 jurors, and two alternates. For those chosen the juror's oath is administered.
These protections include indictment by grand jury and the protection against large fines and bails in criminal courts (Latzer, 2007). According to the indictment by grand jury, criminal accusations and charges cannot be laid against a person who was trying to defend the public without any personal interest. According to this protection, only an independent grand jury can determine the case with warranted evidence that the accused committed a criminal offense (Latzer, 2007). A grand jury is an independent body that conducts investigations on an acclaimed criminal offense and comes up with a decision on whether the person/s should be charged or not. This protection is only applied in federal court system but does not apply to the states, making to be one of the protections that only apply to criminals but not states.
Abe Haskins Jury Nullification Paper CJA/344 Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice June 25, 201208 Jury Nullification Jury nullification was first practiced in 1735, and since then, it has become an important element to our criminal justice system. According to Legal-dictionary, “Jury nullification is a jury’s decision to acquit a defendant despite explicitly violating the law because the jury felt that the law was unjust or not applicable to the case.” Whenever there is a jury nullification, unfortunately race and ethnicity are equated in the decision as well as all the other elements that categorize a guilty or not guilty verdict. Racial-based jury notifications have become a problem for our criminal justice system. A jury is used in a trial case to give fair treatment to the defendant whether he or she is guilty or innocent of the alleged crime. Whether the defendant is white, black, red, or green, the color of the defendant’s skin should not be a factor when deciding a case.
(caselaw.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/). Four models of the Fourth Amendment provide protection: a probabilistic model, a private facts model, a positive law model, and a policy model (Stanford Law Review, p. 503). Exceptions of the right of privacy, is not as stringent in a person’s vehicle. If one’s behavior is suspicious, an officer may impound the vehicle or search its contents without a warrant. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution According to Tom Head’s Civil Liberties, and the Fifth Amendment, a person cannot be held for questions in a capital crime unless an indictment has been issued by a Grand Jury.
Jordan Potter Juvenile Justice Position Paper May 8, 2011 Abstract: The Juvenile system always looks right to rehabilitation for the crimes being committed, when every crime deserves to be seen by a judge no matter how minor they may be. If a minor were to bring a weapon to school, they are brought into the Juvenile Bureau by the intake officer, placed into a holding cell, photographed and fingerprinted if the juvenile is age 14 or older, and asked a series of questions. The parent’s/guardians are called to come pick up the juvenile and the usual punishment for such a crime is suspension from school which might as well be a chaperoned vacation and the juvenile cannot leave the house without an adult. Many cases are not even taken