Jury Nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict against the proof of guilt because the jurors believe the law to be unjust or unjustly applied. As a result‚ the defendant is declared innocent‚ or is given a lesser penalty‚ even though without an act of jury nullification they would have been found guilty. This is a source of much debate in today’s society. Some maintain that it is an important safeguard or last resort against wrongful punishment and imprisonment; while others often view
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Jury It must be recognise that the early function of jury is very different form what it is today. The very first jury had acted as witness and provides information to the court. Later‚ Henry II changed the function of jury to one who deliberates on evidence. Slowly‚ the jury system mold into the system we have today. [1] The system by which we are familiar with today‚ i.e. juries giving verdicts on the basis of what is related to them by witnesses at the court hearing was coming into prominence
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Even though most people believe that the jury system is a necessity to having a fair trial‚ I believe the exact opposite. I believe that the jury is made up of 12 people that have no clue what they are even doing there. Ben Shapiro‚ a writer from The Patriot Post once wrote‚” The problem with juries is that they are generally composed of the 12 people stupid enough to get out of jury duty.” I say that if we want to keep the jury system around‚ we have to make improvement to it. We need to educate
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The jury system has deep historical roots and has been described by Lord Devlin in title ‘Trial by Jury’ as ‘the lamp that shows the freedom lives’. Juries allow the citizens to take part in the administration of justice so that verdicts are seen to be those of society rather the judicial system. Furthermore‚ in Justice‚ Democracy and the Jury‚ named Gobart James stated that freeing the jury from the law and precedent allows them to follow their conscience and good sense‚ and juries instinctively
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Jury Nullification Vanessa Oregel GA12BCJ04 6/12/13 Barry Brooks Jury Nullification Jury nullification can be defined as a jury who believes the defendant is guilty of the charges. Jury nullification occurs when a criminal trial jury refuses to convict a defendant despite proof of guilt because the jurors believe the law is unjust or is being unjustly applied. According to the studies 3 to 4 percent of jury criminal trials involve jury nullification. There is no way to prevent jury nullification
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What role does the Jury system play in Criminal Trials and is it still relevant in today’s society? The jury system has been in our legal system for hundreds of years. It was first established in the 1215 Magna Carta‚ later in the 1679 Habeus Corpus Act and now in s80 of the Australian constitution. The jury system has played an important role in the legal system and has laid out a defining role for each aspect involving the judiciary system. In the following essay I will be disclosing the relevance
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Professor Thor 7 November 2010 Jury Verdicts in Criminal Trials Unanimous verse less than Unanimous Jury verdicts in criminal trials should always be unanimous. In criminal trials the defendant faces life changing outcome. To allow anything less than an unanimous verdicts to determine life changing decisions is out of the question. While departing from the unanimity requirement may decrease the costs of mistrials without affecting the ability of the jury-trial process to arrive at correct;
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Furthermore‚ while members of the jury are instructed to ignore and avoid any publicity or outside news about the trial‚ a case so large and so public would be impossible for the jurors to avoid and‚ therefore‚ stay impartial. In normal cases‚ jurors are asked to stay away from the media and to avoid anything outside of the information that they are given that could sway their vote. However‚ as previously stated‚ in a case with so much public attention‚ it is nearly impossible to prevent jurors
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taping in Texas jury room” written by Karen Everhart talks about the possibility of jury deliberations being skewed by the presence of cameras. To begin with‚ prosecutors believe that the presence of cameras would skew jury selection and deliberations. In the article Delmore stated‚ “desire to appear on a Survivor-style reality television series not be added to the qualification for jury service.” The presence of cameras during the court process could possibly eliminate some valuable jury members who
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there are a number of law makers and citizens who are against raced based jury nullification. Some black lawmakers have said that since a jury is representative of a community then jurors should have the right to decide which people they will allow to live among them. (Butler‚ 1995) This basically means that jurors exercise their power based on conscience and not based on the facts of the case. This means that black juries would acquit non-violent black defendants even in cases where they were clearly
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