Trial by jury
However, a trial by jury also has many flaws. This is why countries like Singapore, India, and Malaysia have abolished the jury system. Civil law nations such as Germany have modified the jury system by introducing a mixed system of panels consisting of both professional and Schöffen (lay judges). As a former lawyer, the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, famously said that he didn’t believe in letting the ‘superstition, ignorance, biases, and prejudices’ of laymen determine guilt. 5 Only about 50 countries in the world (many of which are former colonies of Britain) operate with some version of jury trials; most European countries don’t have jury trials for most of the crimes. These facts expose that, gradually, some people regard the jury system as obsolete. In the UK, juries are typically used in the Crown Court in serious criminal cases - only 3% of all crimes, because many cases never reach the Crown Court. There are two major procedural imperfections of a jury trial: the selection of the jury and the efficiency during the trial. The selection can sometimes fail to produce an unbiased and truly representative jury. This can lead to intentional outcomes that are often unjust. For example, in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), Batson, a black man, was charged with burglary; during the process of the selection of the jury (voir dire), the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to dismiss all four black members of the jury. As a result, the all-white jury was left with the task of trying the black defendant. The jury was neither representative of the community nor detached from racial prejudice, and predictably, Batson was convicted. The Supreme Court ultimately overturned Batson’s conviction; as a legacy of this case, the ‘Batson Challenge’ was established, which allows defence attorneys to object if they suspect a prosecutor is striking jurors based on race, gender, or ethnicity. 6 Despite the ruling, there is still a lot of work that can be done to achieve a truly unbiased jury, such as reducing implicit bias by limiting jurors from using social media or reminding the jurors to consider if they are influenced by stereotypes. Furthermore, the process of a jury trial can be less efficient than a judge trial and thus lead to higher costs and a slower delivery of justice. As mentioned in Keller’s case (a judge trial), the sentence was delivered in a day. In complicated cases, a high percentage of jurors, who are not legally trained, fail to grasp legal instruction, which can slow the proceedings. Other than procedural inefficiency, a jury can also be biased, although it is expected to be unprejudiced. Again, members of the jury are not legally experienced like judges are, and their values and political stance can be more impactful upon voting. This can lead to jury nullification, which is when the jury delivers a ‘not guilty’ verdict despite the prosecution proving the defendant broke the law. Jury nullification happens when the jury (representative of the public interest) thinks the law is unfair or misapplied. This is where democracy clashes with legal accuracy – the vox populi overrides factual evidence and legal frameworks. In a jury trial, the debate in court can focus largely on appealing to the emotions – it is easier to influence the jury by instigating than by persuading through factual evidence. Furthermore, a dominant personality in the jury can sway other members to vote in favour of his/her view and reach a quick verdict. Sometimes, jurors may even turn a blind eye to the evidence and make their decision based on their morals or desire for a specific outcome. Legal accuracy might not be achieved in these cases, but the ‘representative of the community’ is satisfied. For example, in the Ponting case, senior Ministry of Defence official Clive Ponting was acquitted of breaching the Official Secrets Act 1911. He leaked classified documents that revealed the contemporary government’s act of
5 See Landow (n.d.); see also Liu and Chen 2020. 6 Justia, US Supreme Court. (n.d.).
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