| Modern Juries |
[Sep. 21st, 2004|12:17 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
I know legal systems are flawed, but you find they are flawed in new ways every day. Here is an extract from the back of today's Sydney Morning Herald, about the shenanigans of a jury in New York. Since juries are responsible for the grave duty of determining whether a person is guilty or not in the eyes of the law, this is as scary as it is funny.
Modern Juries
Being drunk is no bar to serving on a jury, a New York judge has ruled after John Anastas, 57, admitted he had sipped vodka from a water bottle during the trial of a retired firefighter accused of stealing souvenirs from ground zero.
The judge refused to overturn the fireman's guilty verdict. She cited a 1987 decision on a jury that "drank, used cocaine, smoked marijuana... and slept through a... trial that one juror called 'one big party'," The New York Times reports.
Such behaviour was "no more an 'outside influence' than... a lack of sleep", she said.
My own question: What were the jurors doing on the O.J. Simpson trial? Are jurors allowed to do this during murder or rape trials? Would having orgies be permitted by law too? |
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Unfortunately, anybody decently educated or professional hardly ever makes it past the first round of selection. The lawyers purposely pick people whom are easily influenced by emotion, not facts.
I'm all for going to a 12 judge system, where 12 people who KNOW the laws and the system are the ones who interpret them. Each court would have it's 12 judges, all elected by popular vote, that way there is still a representation of peers present in every trial, but not your peers yourself, because the general populace doesn't know what the hell it's doing. ^_^;
Woah, now there's alot of judges. A good system, Rivkah, but I don't think there's enough judges to go around. Maybe for serious criminal cases, but not for the typical criminal case. Alternatively, we can make the people who are studying law to be ligitation lawyers turn into studying law to become judges. There are enough litigation lawyers as it is ;)
I was thinking: if jury duty was so much fun, you'll think more people will volunteer for it. Take some of the ravers away from their parties, and have them do jury duty. XD
Very few cases every make it to a juried trial, and those are generally the serious cases. In the US, you have the right to waive a trial by jury, which most people do, especially on minor cases, because there's very little room for argument, and one judge is enough.
The Supreme Court is 12 judges, which is actually based off of Old Testament law. In fact, you'll find a LOT of our legal system is based off of biblical law, except for the 'trial by jury' part.
Honestly, I'd love to sit in on jury duty. It'd be fascinating to see this part of our legal system at work.
So would I - but many trials that require a jury can drag out quite long. I do believe the Australian legal system is similar to the US, but it would most likely be based on the British one. Unfortunately, while I studied it in High School, I don't remember a darn thing about it anymore!
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