STUDENT REPLIES

PLEASE WRITE A 150 TO 200 WORD COUNT REPLY BACK TO BOTH STUDENT 1 & 2 AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU PUT EACH NAME BY EACH STUDENT SO I WILL BE ABLE TO DETERMINE WHAT REPLY GOES WITH THE STUDENT AND MAKE SURE YOU REFERENCE EACH REPLY THANKS……

STUDENT REPLY #1 Dorina Fithen

What does it mean to be judged by a jury of your peers?

The phrase “jury of your peers” lends itself to mean “like individuals” or friends of similar socio-economic status. This however is not the case. A jury is made up of individual citizens from the community of jurisdiction. The jury selection process is designed to use tools at the court’s disposal, such as voter registry, department of licensing and such. The notifications are sent out at random to individuals on the list and then the jury pool is narrowed from those that respond. Once the pool is narrowed down to a trial, either criminal or civil, the jury is narrowed even further, with both sides having the opportunity to interview potential jurors. Once both prosecutor and defense have interviewed the witnesses, they will be allowed to challenge several juror candidates to select those that both parties believe will be impartial to their side. As both prosecutor and defense can remove jurors for perceived conflicts of interests, this allows each side a sense of fairness towards the accused, aka “peer”. (Hemmens, 2017)

When facts and testimony is being delivered to a neutral party, it is better than being delivered to one person, “a judge.” Having a jury people who are presented the information is seeing it through different perspectives or of different “lens”, so to speak. We all have different perceptions and understanding. You would want to know that not just one person is judging you. Many if not all our opinions are based off experiences we have seen or been through. One’s version can vary from another on how we see or interpret something. When you need an opinion on something you may ask several people for their opinion and not just one person.

Depending on who sits on the jury, can have an impact of the outcome to cases. As discussed with the illustration in last week’s chapter, Hemmens, Brody and Spohn point out “a cat would not want to be judged by a jury of 12 dogs,” (Hemmens, 2017) I see this as a good illustration in my opinion on how there must be a balance to not have all ethnicities and backgrounds the same.

When you have the feeling of racial inequalities in the system, trust and confidence of the system can be lost. There is a need for a neutral ground to hear the cases to feel there is a fairness within the system.

Reference

Hemmens, C., Brody, D. C., & Spohn, C. (2017). Criminal courts: A contemporary perspective (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Chapter 10, “The Jury” (pp. 279–306)

https://definitions.uslegal.com/p/peer/

STUDENT REPLY

STUDENT REPLY #2 Jessica Wolfe

To be judged by a jury of one’s peers is the basis for a jury in our judicial system. During a trial, a jury of twelve ordinary individuals are randomly selected to listen objectively to the details of the trial. These individuals then use this information to come to a consensus and reach a verdict on whether the defendant is guilty, or innocent of the charges brought against them, hence the term judged by one’s peers. The English jury system was established in colonial America long before the signing of the U.S. Constitution. While the basic structure of the colonial jury system was similar to the English system, as time passed by and colonists viewed themselves increasingly as Americans rather than Englishmen, the American jury became more American. By the 18th century, the right to trial by jury and the protection it provided from the strong arm of the government became a factor in the colonists’ declaring independence from England (Hemmens et all 2017). Similar jury systems are used in the UK, Canada, and Australia as their governments are similar to this English system.

Reference

Hemmens, C., Brody, D.C., and Spohn, C. Criminal courts: A contemporary perspective. (3rd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

PROFESSOR REPLY

PLEASE REFER BACK TO THE VERY FIRST ASSIGNMENT YOU COMPLETED IN THIS WEEK WHICH THE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS IT WILL HELP YOU TO ANSWER BACK TO THE PROFESSOR MAKE SURE YOUR WORD COUNT IS 150 TO 200 WORD COUNT AND REFERENCE YOUR WORK THANK YOU…….

You did a nice job answering the question and supporting your thoughts. What do you think? Does the race, class, and/or gender of a defendant impact the outcome of their case?