Advantage and Disadvatage of the Jury

Representative of society - Those members of society are seen as the voice of the community by making judgement on their follows peers. Lord Elwyn -Jones "No man is to be fined or imprisoned by the will of the states, but only the judgement of his equals".

Verdict is clear -  The jury comes back into the court with a verdict of guilty or not guilty. The secrecy of the jury room protects them from having to give details about their deliberations.

Racially balanced -Black and minority groups were not under represented on the jury as they responded positively to jury service.

Judge according to conscience, perverse verdict - Ponting: civil servant leaked information to the public about the activities about the Falkland was, having a moral conscience in believing the public should know this.

Kronlid - Four women cause one and half million worth of damage to Hawk jet to prevent it from attacking the people of Indonesia, having a moral conscience believing it was wrong.

Stressful - The jury may need conselling after some trails because of the horriofic evdience that the must view. The example is Ian Huntley who murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman then later rid the evidence by bunring their bodies in acid. 

Unitellignet -Some jurors may by unsure of their duty an example is the incident at Snaresbrook Crown Court where some juror members sent a note to the judge asking 'whether we must decide if the defendant is guity or not.

Inflenced by the media - Beforethe trail has started, the media has already written and showed coverage of the accused offence, therefore this may iinfluence the jurys decision. An example is R vs Thmpson and Venables. R vs West. 

Jury may not come to a reasonable decsion - The jury maytake  unreasonale actions to come to a decsion, the example is R vs Young where four memebers of the jury used a ouij board to contact the victim.

Not represeantative of society - They jury is actually likely to be made up older people. 3,000 people each year are excused based on disability.