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The jury system involves an impartial group of peers who determine the facts of a case and issue a verdict. Judges interpret the law and may ask the jury to suggest a penalty. Jurors are randomly selected and questioned in a voir dire process. In rare cases, they may be sequestered to remain impartial. Jury tampering is a threat to the fairness of the system. The modern jury system is used in many countries, with variations in selection, size, and decision requirements.
One of the most recognized legal institutions is the “trial by jury”. More common in jurisdictions with an adversarial legal system, the jury system involves a decision made by an impartial jury made up of peers. A jury is a body of people, known as jurors, who are sworn to hear evidence in a legal matter, determine what they believe to be fact, and then render an impartial verdict.
The role of the jury is to act as “provisional of the facts”. This means that when evidence is presented, the jury is tasked with extracting the slivers of truth from all the evidence presented. Jurors must decide what they believe to be true based on physical evidence, testimony, and the perceived credibility of witnesses, then issue a verdict to settle the matter. Judges perform the role of legal interpreters by answering questions of law, such as what evidence is admissible, what lines of questioning are relevant, and what procedures are appropriate.
After the jury has determined the facts of the case, they are sometimes asked to establish or suggest a judgment or penalty. In criminal cases, a jury’s job is to determine whether or not a defendant is guilty and, in some jurisdictions, to recommend or pronounce sentence for the guilty. The job of a jury in a civil case is to determine whether a party has been harmed as alleged in a lawsuit and, if so, to establish a sentence, which most often is a monetary one.
The judging panel is selected from a pool of randomly selected individuals within a jurisdiction. Potential jurors from this pool are questioned in a process called a voir dire. The judge and attorneys can remove prospective jurors under certain circumstances and accept those they deem fair and impartial. In almost all judging systems, service is mandatory. If a person is called to serve, he must do so under penalty of law.
In rare cases, a jury could be sequestered or isolated during the trial. This is done to keep the jury fair in high profile cases. For jurors to remain impartial, they must have little or no outside impression of the case at hand. Information transmitted by the media or others may be the product of rumors or may be legally inadmissible. Exposure to such information can confuse the facts of the case and cause impressions to form in a juror’s mind that are not considered fair and impartial.
Jury tampering could become an issue in some cases, such as those involving organized crime or high-profile, wealthy defendants. Attempts by a party to bribe, threaten, intimidate, or manipulate a juror’s vote in any way threaten the fairness of the jury system. A judge may order jury arrest for the safety and impartiality of the jurors. Jurors are generally housed in a suitable hotel or motel for the duration of the trial and deliberations when the judge orders this precaution. When seized, jurors are not permitted to have any unsupervised contact with outside information sources and are not permitted access to news or other media.
Designed to offer the fairest and most impartial means of determining guilt or liability within the justice system, the modern jury system is used in many countries. The means of jury selection, the size of the jury, and the requirements for a jury decision may vary from one jurisdiction to another. Local, regional and national laws can also make the process unique to a specific jurisdiction.
