NCJ Number
175603
Date Published
1997
Length
262 pages
Annotation
This book examines the jury within a historical, political, and philosophical framework and analyzes jury decision-making processes.
Abstract
On trial in every criminal case heard by a jury is not only the defendant but also the democratic premise that ordinary citizens are capable of sitting in judgment on the defendant. The jury is a quintessential democratic institution, the lay cog in a criminal justice machine dominated by lawyers, judges, and police. Nonetheless, the jury finds itself under attack, on the right for perverse verdicts and on the left for miscarriages of justice. The author discusses whether the jury model can be adapted to other decision-making contexts and whether citizen juries can be used to revive democratic ideals and to empower the people on issues of public concern. Consideration is paid to conventional and alternative views of the jury's role, stages in the adjudication process, the hierarchy of law and justice, distinctions between judge and jury decision-making, the democratization of juries in the United States and Great Britain, the issue of justice versus democracy and democracy's threat to justice, juror selection and training, and the jury process. References and notes