Jury trials

[Deleted]

Jury trials are not really all that common, although American films and series have convinced a lot of us otherwise.

In quite a few countries, "justice" is the realm of professional judges, either alone or in a group. This seems like it could be dangerously unfair, because for one thing, judges might be unlikely to fully understand life at the level of its most unfavoured categories -- of which they are not a part -- and secondly, when just one or three judges are deciding the fate of the accused, things like indigestion or boredom or just a complete lack of sympathy can totally skew the verdict.

There was an interesting report on the evening news here tonight, because as of tomorrow, there will be jury trials in France for many more crimes. Up until now, jury trials have been mostly reserved for murders, but now they will cover all sorts of "common" felonies.

One thing that I thought was good was that they understand that a jury trial can be just as unfair as a trial by professional judges, so one does not become a juror just with a random drawing and a few banal questions from a lawyer. The new jurors in France go through a training course about the judicial system, which is completed by a full tour of a prison, which lasts 3 hours, so that the jurors fully understand the consequences of their verdict.

The ones who were interviewed seemed quite shaken by the experience and much more unlikely to say things like "lock them up and throw away the key."

I wonder how it will turn out.

[bjd]

I also heard a report about it on the radio this morning. They mentioned that jurors would have to write a report explaining why they made the choices and decisions they did.

Jury trials were not only for murders, Kerouac. When I was on jury duty, most of the trials scheduled were for rape, only two out of ten for murder.

[Deleted]

Yes, I should have written "violent crime" instead of murders.

[hwinpp]

I think the less amateurs have to do with verdicts, the better.

[rikita]

yes, i fear even with training and beforehand prison tours, with non-professionals i think the risk is even higher of their general prejudices playing into it (not that the risk isn't there with judges, too...) - like more "gut" decisions of "he looks like he'd commit that type of crime"...

but i might be wrong, don't know... i don't think i'd feel able to decide a thing like that...

[Deleted]

In any case, it is just starting a test phase in certain districts. I imagine that they will observe the results for at least a year before deciding to generalize it or abandon it. Frankly, I think it is just another case of Sarkozy pandering to populism.

[bjd]

Actually, what I found interesting when I was on a jury was that we, the general public, were less eager to set a heavy sentence than the magistrates with us. I guess they were a lot more used to seeing criminals than we were.

[patricklondon]

This is interesting. Juries in the UK (a) don't have anything like the sort of training or induction described here (b) don't have any say in sentencing, merely on the decision as to whether the prosecution has proved its case (c) aren't supposed to reveal what's been said in the jury room (even to the point that academic researchers aren't allowed to conduct anonymised research on how they reach decisions, or that reinvestigation of what might be miscarriages of justice don't investigate what influenced the original jury).

One does wonder whether the system is optimally organised, especially when this sort of thing happens (in point of fact, what with remissions, this young man was released in time for Christmas at home, but one hopes it taught him and his mother a lesson):
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/21/juror-jailed-trial-visit-theatre

On the other hand, it's very hard to think of cases where jurors have come up with decisions that a tribunal of professional judges wouldn't have.

[Deleted]

Perhaps the French thought about the frivolity of 19 year olds, because the minimum age here has been set at 23.

[bjd]

And the maximum is 70.

[hwinpp]

I think Patrick has shown the main difference in juries in the UK and the US and in Europe.

In Germany the judge or panel of judges, finds guilt is proven and sets the sentence.