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Pros And Cons Of The Jury System

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The American jury system is a tradition that comes from England before explorers came over to what is now America. A jury has been used to “fairly” judge a person being put on trial. Most criminal and civil cases use a jury. The jury system is not a good idea since it has people who do not anything about law judging someone based on what a lawyer says that makes no sense to someone who has never heard those terms before. The jury system is putting six to twelve people in charge of the defendant’s life. Cases that do not have a jury is called a bench trial. The judge decides the verdict instead of a jury. Out of 394 cases that were bench trials 137 were found not guilty. Out of 2352 jury trials 286 were found not guilty.(Document A) There …show more content…

(Document D) The jurors that decided not guilty were from the area that the family from Florida so that means there are people who could blame them for their decision and that could affect their work or their home life. The jury system gives people the right to be judged by their peers but no one thinks about what happens to the jurors. If one person disagrees with what the jury decides. The decision made by the jurors will also affect them and not only the defendant. When on the jury some of the jurors know what to do. The jurors know what to pay attention to and what does not really matter but others do not. Some of the jurors get distracted by a cute guy or have their mind set on their decision before the case even starts and that can sway the jury and hurt the defendant if they are not guilty and help the defendant if they are guilty. (Document E) Even though some people are mature enough and understand enough about law to make a logical decision others are not making it unfair to others who may be affected by the trial. The jury system is meant to give a fair trial to anyone who has committed a crime, but it is not. In theory the jury system is a good idea, but theories do not always come out as planned. Everyone is biased for their own reasons, that makes trials not always fair. People judging the trials do not care about the trial and so they do not pay attention.

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