Viv D wrote:
>
> To whom it may concern,
>
> I'm writing a legal brief about why professional jurors are better than
> peer jurors, for class. I've been having some trouble finding information
> on this subject and was wondering if you could be of some assistance. If
> you have any facts that may be useful, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank
> you in advance for your time and help.
>
> ~Viviane
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
Hi Viviane,
I am assuming you found this article in refrence
to 101 ways to get out of Jury Duty [1] of which
I (Greg, not "to whom") am the author.
There seems to be a process nowadays that involves
hurdle upon hurdle for an accused. First there's
a petit or criminal trial to determine criminal
liability with criminal standards of guilt or
not. Usually depending on the outcome, this branches
to either 1) an appeal up the ladder of the court system
if the loser determines that there is some legally
ambiguous issue, or 2) into a civil jury trial
with a lesser/looser set of standards in which the jury
decides amounts of compensation due to the victim
based on presumption of guilt or not.
If a person charged with a very contraversial crime
is found not guilty in either the criminal trial or
the criminal and civil trials, sometimes the federal government
will make a federal case out of it under a separate
federal statute.
Add to this the number of "hung" juries, the number
of mistrials, discounted(?) jury opinions, and the number of voir dire dismissals and
the number of free-timers and meddlers with political
agendas or radical views, you have a pretty good case for
professional juries as a mechanism to reduce bureaucratic burden
on legitimate citizens.
Many critics of the American court system content that the
screening process is lengthy and costly. In addition
jury selection is unfair and that pursuit of the perfect
jury has become less random and more of how you can
game the selection process.
A professional juror would be a person who is paid to
perform jury duty for some stint of time and passes a
certification class to understand the concepts of reasonableness,
presumption, probability, and most important responsibility.
The arguement for professional juries is nothing but one of convenience.
You decide.
Greg
[1] http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/sept99/0296.html
-- Gregory Alan Bolcer | gbolcer@endeavors.com | work: 949.833.2800 Chief Technology Officer | http://endeavors.com | cell: 714.928.5476 Endeavors Technology, Inc. | efax: 603.994.0516 | wap: 949.278.2805
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