Picture this scene: a man has been put on trial for a murder that he did not commit. He stands before a jury of 12 women and men, complete strangers to him and his case. These jurors have the man’s life in their hands, and none of them have any experience with the law. The man is charged guilty without any discourse. He will spend the rest of his life in an overcrowded, poorly funded prison with no chance of rehabilitation or parole. This man is just one of thousands that are wrongfully convicted during jury trials every year. Would his fate have differed if the judge, who had been through law school and had plentiful knowledge about how the laws work, had made the decision instead of the strangers? The jury system in America is outdated, causes …show more content…
With technological communication steadily on the rise, it is becoming more and more difficult to remain ignorant about court cases. In Document F, famous author Mark Twain was discussing a jury trial that he remembered very clearly, stating that “of course the papers were full of it, and all men capable of reading, read about it. And of course all men not deaf and dumb and idiotic talked about it.” Even in the ages before electronic communication, word spread fast. Now with cell phones and other forms of communication, an unbiased jury is increasingly more difficult to bring …show more content…
However, requiring randomly selected citizens to serve often leads to an irritated and disinterested jury. As depicted by cartoon 2 in Document E, jurors can often decide a verdict based on physical appearance and subconscious biases towards the defendant. Citizens often think that they are making unbiased, fair decisions when in reality they are not. Another issue would be picking inappropriate people to serve on a jury for a particular case. In cartoon 3 of the same document, the defendant is shown as a dog, while every jury member is a cat. This is a common euphemism for race, as a person of color might feel uncomfortable with 12 white men and women deciding the