Codified in the US Constitution, the judicial system in America has been called the best of a bad lot around the world. It brings normal people, people who may have never had any interactions with the law before, into the judicial system. An American Jury System Review would go into some of the good things and some of the bad things about it.
The face of the judicial system is straight forward. A prosecutor charges a person with a crime and summons them to court. That prosecutor attempts to prove their charges and that he is guilty of them. The defendant has a lawyer that attempts to dissuade the jury from believing those charges and that his client did not do this.
While both lawyers are talking and, possibly, double talking, the jury is sitting there trying to take it all in. It will be up to them, when all is said and done, to decide whether the defendant is guilty or not based on the facts they hear. A bad part about this system is that many do not seem to understand the facts or are having problems respecting the seriousness of their task.
For the average person, it can be a daunting and intimidating to be in this room with all of the ceremony and expensive suits and sometimes they feel sorry for the defendant. Sometimes all of this is too much for many people called from their normal days work to do this. This could be part of the bad side of things.
Getting on a jury is actually fairly simple. You will get a letter or post card from the county or State court asking you to come and offer yourself as a juror. The lists of these names can come from department of motor vehicles or from the voters registration rolls. You will arrive at a large room with many others, so bring something to read. You will then, usually, be asked to fill out a questionnaire.
The questionnaires have been written by the attorneys on both sides, They will take their copies of these and allow a court clerk to call several names to be taken into the court room. This will be the room where the trial you may be on will be heard. What happens next will be interesting and forms the basis of many of the complaints about the system.
The judge will talk with this group and ask them a few general questions and then turn the questioning over to the lawyers. These professionals will attempt to find out how the jurists, individually, feel about the accused. The prosecution wants to know if each person knows any of the people in the room. They might want to know how each person feels about the death penalty. They will try to illicit their feelings about race, especially if the defendant is a different race than the person being asked.
Each member of the jury is exhorted to remain objective until all of the evidence has been presented and all lawyers have had their say. This is difficult for some as more and more activists are stating that the laws do not apply to various groups of people and that, therefore, preconceived opinions are the only way to get justice. This only helps to destroy the system that has served American very well for more than 200 years.
The face of the judicial system is straight forward. A prosecutor charges a person with a crime and summons them to court. That prosecutor attempts to prove their charges and that he is guilty of them. The defendant has a lawyer that attempts to dissuade the jury from believing those charges and that his client did not do this.
While both lawyers are talking and, possibly, double talking, the jury is sitting there trying to take it all in. It will be up to them, when all is said and done, to decide whether the defendant is guilty or not based on the facts they hear. A bad part about this system is that many do not seem to understand the facts or are having problems respecting the seriousness of their task.
For the average person, it can be a daunting and intimidating to be in this room with all of the ceremony and expensive suits and sometimes they feel sorry for the defendant. Sometimes all of this is too much for many people called from their normal days work to do this. This could be part of the bad side of things.
Getting on a jury is actually fairly simple. You will get a letter or post card from the county or State court asking you to come and offer yourself as a juror. The lists of these names can come from department of motor vehicles or from the voters registration rolls. You will arrive at a large room with many others, so bring something to read. You will then, usually, be asked to fill out a questionnaire.
The questionnaires have been written by the attorneys on both sides, They will take their copies of these and allow a court clerk to call several names to be taken into the court room. This will be the room where the trial you may be on will be heard. What happens next will be interesting and forms the basis of many of the complaints about the system.
The judge will talk with this group and ask them a few general questions and then turn the questioning over to the lawyers. These professionals will attempt to find out how the jurists, individually, feel about the accused. The prosecution wants to know if each person knows any of the people in the room. They might want to know how each person feels about the death penalty. They will try to illicit their feelings about race, especially if the defendant is a different race than the person being asked.
Each member of the jury is exhorted to remain objective until all of the evidence has been presented and all lawyers have had their say. This is difficult for some as more and more activists are stating that the laws do not apply to various groups of people and that, therefore, preconceived opinions are the only way to get justice. This only helps to destroy the system that has served American very well for more than 200 years.
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