Advantages and disadvantages of the jury

What are the advantages of juries?

Democratic
Cross section of society represented
Fairer than judge alone
Jury independance
Jury equity

1 of 24

Why is the jury democratic?

Jury stems from the fundamental democratic demand that the law is accountable to the people
Been described as the bastion of civil liberties
Trial by peers
Jury acts as a check on officialdom and the judges power

2 of 24

What did Lord Devlin describe the jury as in 1960?

"the lamp which shows that freedom lives"

3 of 24

Why is it good the jury comes from a cross section of society?

Random selection to ensure cross section
With 12 people any prejudice should be cancelled out and balanced
the onus is not placed on one person

4 of 24

What is jury independance?

They are independant and can not serve if they know anyone involved in case
Free from pressure in the deliberation room and free from pressure from the judge

5 of 24

What case was the independance of the jury established in?

Bushells case 1670

6 of 24

What does jury equity mean?
In what case was this shown

Juries do not have to give reasons for their verdicts and can give verdicts based on their own sense of justice
R v Owen 1991

7 of 24

What are the disadvantages of the jury system?

Not representative, bias, easily swayed, lack of skills, secrecy of deliberations, high acquittal rates in criminal trials, emotional impact on individual jurors, cost, time consuming, inability to assess damages in civil cases

8 of 24

Why are they not representative?

Electoral lists are not representative
Electoral register does not include homeless or those in temporary accomadation
A random sampling does not lead to a cross section of society

9 of 24

What did the case of Thomas and Balmer 2007 Diversity and Fairness in the Jury System show?

Found no evidence that the middle class were avoiding jury service
Highest rate of jury service among the middle and high income earners
Employed were overrepresented
Unemployed and retired were under represented

10 of 24

How it juries not representative for ethnicity?

electoral roles are not representative
found that up to 20% of black and asian people never register to vote in England and Wales

11 of 24

What did Thomas & Balmer 2007 Diversity and Fairness in the Jury System say to do with ethnicity?

No significant difference in the numbers of ethnic minorities summoned for jury service
No difference in proportion of ethnic minorities and while in willingless to do jury
White jurors are more likely to be elected
79% of Crown Courts are low ethnicity c

12 of 24

What did Runciman Commission on Criminal Justice 1993 say on multi racial jury?

There should be a right to 3 jurors of the same ethnic group as the defendant or victim

13 of 24

Who found what when looking at representativeness to do with gender?

Zander & Henderson 1993 - found 53% if jurors were male whereas they make up only 48% in the population
Thomas & Balmer 2007 - found that jury pools at individual courts closely reflected the local population in terms of gender

14 of 24

What is jury bias?

Jurors are ordinary members of the public and may bring their prejudice to the court room
Could be bias for against the police, class, age, gender, ethnicity, clothing, sexual orientation etc

15 of 24

Jury Bias - Racial Prejudice
Who carried out research and what did they find ?

Baldwin & McConville 1979 - carried out research on 276 cases in Birmingham
The trial lawyers, police and judges completed questionnaires
Found there was a disproportionate number of black defendants in the questionable conviction category
Suggests racia

16 of 24

What happened in the case of Sander v UK 2001 to do with racial prejudice?

A juror complained to judge of racial comments in the deliberation room and the judge allowed the trial to continue
The defendant was convicted and appealed
Court of Appeal said they were powerless because anything discussed in the deliberation room is c

17 of 24

What did Sealy & Cornish, Jurors and their verdicts 1973 find about gender bias?

research using a mock **** trial found women were significantly more likely to convict on circumstantial evidence

18 of 24

What case saw jurors being easily swayed?

R v West 1996 - she couldnt have a fair trial because of the media reports

19 of 24

What does swaying by the judges look like?

Juries look to the judge for guidance in reaching their verdict
Judges should be neutral in their summing up of a case to the jury but this isnt always achieved

20 of 24

Why is lack of skills an issue and what did Lord Denning say?

no qualification is required

argued that jurors should be selected only from those who demonstrated the intellectual ability to serve

21 of 24

What act makes it an offence to disclose or solicit information obtained in the jury room?

S.20 Juries Act 1974 as amended by S.47 Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015

22 of 24

What does secrecy of deliberations make difficult?

Appealing against a jurys verdict as juries are not able to give reasons for their decisions
Also makes it difficult to conduct research

23 of 24

What did Baldwin & McConvilles 1979 research show about high acquittal rates in criminal trails?

found judges had serious doubts over an acquittal in 32% of cases
only 1/3 of acquittals in Birmingham were seen as clearly justified by all respondents
Acquittal rates in the crown court are consistently higher than those in Magistrates 57% as oppose to

24 of 24

Get Revising

Advantages and disadvantages of the jury

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Back

Card 3

Front

Back

Card 4

Front

Back

Card 5

Front

Back

Comments

Similar Law resources:

Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Back

Card 3

Front

Back

Card 4

Front

Back

Card 5

Front

Back

Comments

Related discussions on The Student Room

Similar Law resources: