Jury trial

A jury trial is a trial where a judge or judges are supplemented by a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not justice professionals. Juries are most commonly associated with common law jurisdictions. However some civil law jurisdictions also involve juries or lay assessors.

Pros and cons

In countries where jury trials are common, they are often seen as an important check against state power. Many also believe that a jury is likely a more sympathetic hearing, or a fairer one, to the defendant than representatives of the state would.

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This last point may be disputed. For example, in highly emotional cases, such as child rape, the jury may be tempted to convict based on personal feelings rather than on conviction behind reasonable doubt. Former attorney, then later minister of Justice Robert Badinter remarked about jury trials in France that they were like riding a ship into a storm, because they are much less predictable than bench trials.

Related Topics:
Minister of Justice - Robert Badinter

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Another issue with jury trials is the potential for jurors to be swayed by prejudice, including racial considerations. An infamous case was the 1992 trial in the Rodney King case in California, in which white police officers were acquitted of violently beating a black man by a jury consisting mostly of whites without any black jurors, despite an incriminating videotape of the action, which showed Mr. King's attacks against the police officers omitted from the media's public broadcasts of said videotape. This led to widespread questioning about the case and riots ensued.

Related Topics:
Rodney King - California - Riots ensued

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The positive belief about jury trials in the UK and the US contrasts with popular belief in many other nations, in which it is considered bizarre and risky for a person's fate to be put into the hands of untrained laymen. Consider Japan, for instance, which used to have optional jury trials for capital or other serious crimes between 1928 and 1943. The defendant could freely choose whether to have a jury or trial by judges, and the decisions of the jury were non-binding. During the Tōjō-regime this was suspended, arguably due to the popular belief that any defendant who risks his fate on the opinions of untrained laymen is almost certainly guilty.

Related Topics:
Japan - 1928 - 1943 - Tōjō

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