Jury Duty and Court Cases Based on the United States Constitution, all citizens have the right to a “Trial by Jury,” which is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision in order to direct the actions of a judge. A jury pool is randomly selected first, and then the potential jurors are notified. After, “Voir Dire,” or jury selection, occurs where twelve people are chosen for jury duty. The opinions of citizens differ greatly based on whether or not they believe that serving jury duty is a privilege, responsibility, burden, or even unnecessary. According to Kris, a neighbor of mine, the process of being selected as a juror is tedious, but she enjoys being a juror. She has only served in one case, but feels that as citizens it is …show more content…
Sean Lowe and the People of New York v. Keesshawn Nesbitt. In People v. Lowe, the court decided on January 13, 2015, that Lowe was guilty of endangering the welfare of a child under Penal Law § 260.10(1). On June 28, 2014, after a firefighter could not immediately revive the defendant on a public street while his two children in his care, one of the children being supervised by a stranger on the street and the other “missing” according to the defendant himself, it was finally established from an EMT technician called to the scene that Lowe was highly intoxicated under the influence of a controlled substance. Both the EMT technician and firefighter smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from the defendant; however, when they reported it the firefighter only mentioned that the defendant seemed under the influence of a controlled substance. For this reason, Lowe tried to fight the case by using that as a Misdemeanor Complaint but it failed to be converted into one, because the information of the eyewitnesses, using either terminology, was facially sufficient. Next in order, in People v. Nesbitt, the court decided on September 17, 2015, that the defendant was guilty after a deponent witnessed him enter an informants car without permission while carrying a backpack with an unlicensed imitation firearm/air pistol, pellets for an air pistol, and a bullet proof vest inside. The air pistol apparently looked, felt, and weighed the same as a real pistol with a propelling force of air and not orange rubber stop on the tip. The court decided that under Penal Law § 165.05 Nesbitt is criminalized due to unauthorized vehicle usage despite whether or not he did or intended to operate the vehicle, along with the Administrative Code of the City of New York § 10-131 (g) (1) that prohibits the possession of imitation firearms and the unlicensed possession of air pistols. I agree with the court’s
For this essay I asked my Grandma Diane questions about jury duty. She has never served on a jury but she has been summonsed to questioning to possibly be on one. When she got the summons letter she wasn’t excited, “ I didn’t want to do it, because I didn’t feel that I [had] the right to judge anyone else,” and didn’t really want to go. She got asked questions like, “Could you be impartial? Could you be fair? If “this” happened would you say that the person is guilty? Are you related to the person/persons involved? Have you heard anything about the case?,” the attorneys asked these questions because they wanted to make sure they had a jury that would make an unbiased decision in the court case. My grandma said that, “It made [her] respect what
The sixth amendment to the U.S constitution guarantees a defendant in a criminal prosecution the right to a speedy, public, and impartial trial by jury. Once it has determined that the trail will be by jury, the next step in the criminal proceeding is the selection of the jurors. During this process possible jurors receive a summons in the mall ordering them to appear in court at a specified time and date the people who are summoned comprise the venire (the prospective jurors for cases). Voir dire Latin term meaning to speak the truth, this is an examination conducted by the courts or by the attorneys of a potential juror or witness to determine if they would be proficient or qualified for services. Jurors’ questionnaires reveals information disqualifying them from jury service is only the first step in the jury selection process. Typical questions relate to whether prospective jurors know the defendant, the attorneys, or any of the witnesses, whether they have read or heard about the case in the media, and whether they have racial, nationality, or gender biases. Effective voir dire is getting the prospective jurors to tell the court or attorneys what they need to know.
A jury is a person who is un-qualified and not paid who is selected at random to participate in the court hearing. To be
Today we are here to speak upon todays Jury system and how it can be improved or should we have it removed. Well I'm here to tell you my side. I think jury duty at this point should be eliminated and done for because its has more convicted, its random people you can say with no experience on handling a situation like this with a “criminal” they don't know how to assess the situation at hand like if you were to go with the bench, and also some of the jurors don't even pay attention to the case they are there because they have to. In the jury system there has been more cases than in the bench for the year 2010.
In Canada, jurors are poorly paid and most of the times, jurors suffer from personal hardship. In Ontario, A juror gets virtually no payment for the first 10 days of work and $50/day for the next 39 days and $100 a day after that. What's more, the jurors are expected to cough up money for parking. Add to it, the price of gas, the daily trip to the courthouse can be really expensive for a long trial. ("Opinion | EDITORIAL: Jury duty is legalized theft", 2011)
The first phase of a criminal jury trial is focused on selecting specific jurors, which is accomplished through a process referred to as 'voir dire' which is a screening of potential jurors. In the criminal trial involving an offense categorized as a felony "12 jurors and up to six alternate jurors may be chosen." (3rd Judicial District, ) Voir dire of the jury involves the prosecuting and defense attorneys questioning the potential jurors and
The word jury comes from the French word juror which means to swear an oath. A jury is a group of citizens chosen to hear evidence and make a decision in court. We have the jury because the United States constitution states that every citizen has the right to jury a case of criminal and civil matters. The word jury comes from the French word juror which means to swear an oath. A jury is a group of citizens chosen to hear evidence and make a decision in court. We have the jury because the United States constitution states that every citizen has the right to jury a case of criminal and civil matters. To be on a jury, you had to be a citizen. You had to be over 30 years of age and had to swear that you would be fair to both sides. You did get
Serving Jury Duty - Serving jury duty is a requirement of a citizen to be apart of a jury when instructed. At jury duty, 12 selected citizens must hear and see the evidence in the case and decided whether the accuser is innocent or guilty. This duty is significant because the U.S. government promises that anyone who is accused of a crime will have the right to a trial by jury.
Jury selection beings with a summons being sent out to all eligible adults. These summons, in Canada, are sent out randomly in order to obtain representativeness amongst the jury members (Friedland, 1990). While this seems to be the best way of obtaining impartial jurors, it sometimes ends up creating other problems through-out the trial. The Crown and defense try to avoid problems, such as bias, impartiality, pre-trial publicity, and polarization, during jury
Every second, there are millions of lawsuits taking places in the United States. There is a question that always needed to be asked: is it a fair trial? The answer depends on all kinds of variables, such as race, education, poverty, age, gender and so on. A jury selection always needs to consider and assess different variables. In addition, in a jury selection, the lawyers and the judge need to eliminate different bias in order to proceed with a fair trail. In the legal system, a jury selection is also referred as voir dire process, which originally translated to an oath taken by jurors to tell the truth. According to the Sixth Amendment, the Constitution provides the defendant in a criminal trial with the right to “ an impartial jury” (Benforado
Something I have learned from these films, and also my own experience from jury duty, is that the media plays a big role in impacting these jurors ability to sit as jurors in a case. The major differences that I have noticed
If during all of this process no agreement or deal has been made it goes to trial. “A trail is the proceeding during which the government and the defense present evidence to prove or disprove the charges” (Victim Assistance, 2013). If the defendant chooses to have a trial by jury than the jury selection process begins. “Twelve jurors are selected randomly from the jury pool, a list of potential jurors compiled from voter registration records of people living in the district” (Steps in the Federal Criminal Process, 2015). An ideal jury should consist of all types of people from different races and cultures (Steps in the Federal Criminal Process, 2015). Each attorney asks each potential jury member questions about their prejudices to help them decide whether or not they want them on the jury (Steps in the Federal Criminal Process, 2015). The judge is there to make sure that the attorneys are fair with their questions, and that the jury selection ends up fair and impartial.
The Constitution states “[i]n all criminal cases the defendant has the right to be tried by a jury of 12 whose verdict must be unanimous.” In the federal court system, a jury must be unanimous, whether the case is civil or criminal; while in the state
Given that, if you are an attorney preparing a jury profile you will want to select jurors through the process of voir dire “A tool that the parties use for the purpose of revealing
Serving on a jury is a civic duty and an American tradition. However, some people view jury duty as a chore or as an event that negatively interrupts their lives. Some independent studies have shown that even jury duty has a devastating effect on married life. Due to this and other extraneous situations, there are only a few people who actually want to serve on a jury. This may lead to efforts by potential jurors to, in some way get out of their duty in a jury. What we know of as the current jury duty system should be changed so citizens are not forced to serve in this capacity and can still be regarded as a responsible civilian. As per the status quo, a trial jury is a constitutional right, a jury of ones peers or equals. However,