Trial by jury
| Thursday, Feb 09 2006 04:16 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Mar 28 2009 12:25 PM
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Thomas Jefferson once said that given a choice between the right to vote and the right to jury trial, he would choose the right to jury trial. He believed that the right to trial by jury is the most important element of a true democracy. Time may have proven Jefferson correct.
The jury is the heart of the grass roots administration of public justice, playing an indispensable role in the American experiment of government by the people. The jury system serves both practical and symbolic functions within the democratic institution.
The jury serves as a check on governmental power. It is also the means by which the people participate in the administration of justice, bringing the public at large into the judicial branch of government.
Juries provide an outlet for the community to refine and to express its moral will, the conscience of the community. The use of juries keeps the criminal justice system in step with the standards of ordinary people and ensures that community support for the criminal justice system is maintained.
In today's complex society, the individual often has very little voice in how things are run. Elected officials can become unresponsive to the people they purport to govern. The jury experience is different. Nowhere else not even in the voting booth must Americans come together in person to decide fundamental issues of law and fact. In performing this duty, jurors face a solemn obligation to overlook personal differences, to fairly administer the law, and to do justice.
Our jury system is a last bastion against oppressive conduct by the state, either in the making of laws or in the application and enforcement of those laws. By its existence as an institution, with a decisive role to play, the jury is primarily responsible for the integrity and fairness of the criminal justice system.
Despite the positive contributions, we would be naive to believe that jury verdicts are always correct. Irrelevant evidence, aimed solely at inflaming passions and prejudice, has contributed to skewed jury verdicts and wrongful convictions. While the jury system is not perfect, overall jury performance deserves outstanding marks.
Law Day 2005 is an opportunity for Americans to celebrate and enjoy our democratic freedoms. The jury is the embodiment of democracy. We entrust our juries small bodies of ordinary men and women with crucial decisions that involve our lives, liberties and property. In doing so, we confirm our faith in the ability of ordinary people to make just and wise decisions --- the very definition of democracy. As Sir Patrick Devlin observed:
"The first object of any tyrant ... would be to make (Government) utterly subservient to his will; the next to overthrow or diminish trial by jury, for no tyrant could afford to leave a subject's freedom in the hands of twelve of his countrymen. So ... trial by jury is more than an instrument of justice and more than one wheel of the constitution: it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives."
Mark A. Arnold is Kern County's public defender.
