Jury as a Political Institution

1
Jury as a Political Institution

• Jury functions more than simply as fact-finding
  body
• Injects community evaluation of acts of alleged
  wrongdoing
• Jury can offer protection from government
  oppression
• Ambiguity in jury-both extends power of state
  through formal law and is vehicle for popular
  participation
• Jury nullification-right to ignore the law as
  matter of conscience

2
Jury does more than

• Determine the facts in a specific case and apply
  them the law
• Reason that technological methods of finding the
  truth are inadequate is that juries inject the
  communitys snse of justice into a situation
• Jurors must make judgments about the significance
  of facts and the fairness of applying these to
  law-truth serums etc. cannot do this

3
Duncan v. Lousiana(1968)

• Defendant convicted of misdemeanor simple battery
• No jury trial-convicted-appeal based on denial of
  right to jury trial-violating 6th and 14th
  amendment.
• Court held that because right to jury trial is a
  fundamental right, states are required to
  guarantee it in all criminal cases-not petty
  offenses
• Court recounts history of jury trials as critical
  to the protection against arbitrary rule

4
DeTocqueville

• The jury system is as direct and as extreme a
  consequence of the sovereignty of the people as
  universal suffrage
• Means of education of the people

5
Jury Nullification The Right to Say No

• Jurors have the inherent right to set aside the
  instructions of the judge and to reach a verdict
  of acquittal based on their own consciences
• Debate over whether the defendant has the right
  to have the jury so instructed