Why jurors

The judge determines the appropriate law that should be applied to the case and the jury finds the facts in the case based on what is presented to them during the proceedings. At the end of a trial, the judge instructs the jury on the applicable law. Jury Pool to Jury Box Being summoned for jury service does not guarantee that a person will actually serve on a jury.

Types of Cases Heard by Juries There are two types of judicial proceedings in the federal courts that use juries. The attorney raising the issue has to explain the potential bias when they ask for dismissal for cause. However, the U. Supreme Court ruled in the Batson v. Kentucky case that peremptory strikes cannot be used to dismiss jurors based solely on their race. The opposing attorney can raise a Batson challenge to a peremptory strike if they believe the juror is being dismissed because of their race.

They raised concerns that those jurors may have been rejected because of their race. While Batson bans dismissal solely because of race, many veteran lawyers, researchers and others argue that questions regularly used to dismiss jurors for bias are slanted against people of color. He or she acts as an informal chairperson and spokesperson for the jury.

The 12 jurors in a case are selected from a number of people who have been called to do their jury service on that day. Section 23 of the Courts and Civil Law Miscellaneous Provisions Act amended the Juries Act so that the jury can consist of up to 15 members, if the case is expected to last more than 2 months. The jurors are charged with the responsibility of deciding whether, on the facts of the case, a person is guilty or not guilty of the offence for which he or she has been charged.

The jury must reach its verdict by considering only the evidence introduced in court and the directions of the judge. The jury does not interpret the law. It follows the directions of the judge as regards legal matters.

During all stages of the trial, jurors may take notes of proceedings. Jurors may also pass notes to the foreman or forewoman of the jury to ask the judge to explain certain aspects of the case. At the conclusion of the trial, the jurors are given an issue paper, which states the issues that the jury must consider in reaching its verdict. When a jury consists of more than 12 members, only 12 are selected to consider the verdict.

A Court Garda or other official is required to keep the jury together until the verdict is reached. But what if the judge makes a mistake of fact, chooses to believe the wrong witness, one that only a minority of the jurors would have believed? There is no remedy for that kind of mistake. There is another powerful reason why trial by jury is necessary.

In this age of mass media, most people derive their knowledge of what goes on in a court from what they read in the paper and see on television. If all that citizens know of the criminal justice system is what they read in the papers and see on TV, they are going to get a misleading impression of how it works and that misleading impression can corrode their faith in the system.

You may wonder when you read the newspaper report of a case how a jury could have arrived at its verdicts, but you will only have heard a fraction of the evidence that the jury heard.

By bringing ordinary citizens into the system and placing them at the very heart of the decision-making process, trial by jury exposes the criminal justice system to their scrutiny while ensuring they gain first-hand experience of how that system works. Trial by jury helps the criminal justice system reflect the values and standards of the general public.