Is the Jury System Suitable for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands?

• NCJ Number: 89898
• Journal: Political Science Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Dated: (July 1982) Pages: 66-91
• Author(s): R McShane
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: New Zealand
• Note: Revised version of a paper originally prepared for the Second Year Seminar at the University of Hawaii, and revised following field research and library research.

Annotation

The formal American jury system is not appropriate for a small, remote island community such as the Northern Mariana Islands (MNI) where a high degree of personal acquaintance makes impartial decisionmaking almost impossible and local residents are biased against outsiders.

Abstract

All islands in the American-administratered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands are undergoing a change of status, and the NMI have chosen to become a commonwealth within the United States. The NMI's indigenous peoples have been successfully colonized over the last 450 years by Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States so that little remains of the true traditional culture. Following acceptance of the Commonwealth Covenant, the NMI developed and ratified a constitution in 1977. The NMI's criminal justice system is strongly influenced by the American model, but the constitution leaves the decision to adopt a jury system to the legislature which currently requires jury trials only for cases where the offense carries a maximum sentence of 5 years or more. The jury system is a supremely Anglo-Saxon institution which is not necessarily viable when transferred to societies with little or no Anglo-Saxon traditions. The NMI, with a small population, is dominated by one ethnic cultural group, the Chamorros, and a distinct minority, the Carolinians. Occasional problems between the two groups, the value place on social status, friendship, kinship, and personal background, and the fact that everyone knows everybody else seriously impede representative jury selection and objectivity. The constitutional status of the applicability of the sixth amendment requirement for trial by jury to the NMI remains unclear. Possible alternatives to the formal jury system for the NMI include community courts, lay assessors, community or court mediation, change of venue, modification of current jury rules, and videotaped or satellite live remote trials. The paper provides 36 footnotes and 51 references.