Jury duty: Professional or of peers?

[Troublco]

I don't think so. I think if you had professional jurors those people would become so jaded that they'd make decisions based on appearances. They might understand the system and how it works, however I don't think you'd gain anything and could easily go opposite of the intention.

[jake]

I don't think so. I think if you had professional jurors those people would become so jaded that they'd make decisions based on appearances.

Jurors already do. Studies have shown that attractive defendants are more likely to be found not guilty, except in cases of fraud.

[Irving]

It'd be too easy to bribe a consistent set of known, paid, jurors. I'd say it's better to keep it the way that it is, but to let people openly volunteer. I haven't actually done jury duty before except for a teen court in high school. I had a blast at that and couldn't even stand how stupid the other jurors were (teenage girls).

[SAnd]

Who would get to pick the professionals? How big would the juror pool be? Some of the judges we have now shouldn't be judges because of their biases. I would fear that a professional jury would develop the same problem.

The jury serves two equally important functions. They decide if the person actually did the crime and they also judge if the law is just or being applied justly. I wouldn't trust professional juries to properly fill the second job.

I'll take what we have, warts and all, before I would trust any professionals.

[theGinsue]

I have never served on a jury. I don't want to server on a jury. If, however, I were called, I wouldn't work to find a way out of it. Either they pick me or they don't.

Basically what I'm saying is that I know we have a lot of idiots sitting on juries these days, but I prefer the system we have now to a professional jury system.

Of course, we could always have this:

I AM THE LAW!

[SA Friday]

A jury of your peers is to ensure the spirit of the law is taken into account as much as the letter of the law. There are already a plethora of professional law actors in a court room; prosecution, defense, judge, court reporter, bailiff... With a trained jury, you are simply adding to the amount of professionals of the court, and losing the checks and balance of the voice of public opinion. A jury of unbiased, untrained, local citizens ensures the professionals are not going too far in their pursuit of enforcing the letter of the law and overlooking the spirit of that same law.

The draw back is you have to sift through the meatheads to get 12 for every jury, and one or two of the meatheads slip through. No system will be perfect. The fault doesn't lie in the court system IMO, but in the lack of instruction on our legal system (and constitutional rights, and critical thinking, and philosophy) in the current school systems. They just don't get enforced in the state public school testing system, so the schools focus on the four basics which do get tested.

[sniper7]

I have served on a jury case before and was elected to be the speaker. I was 21 or 22. all the others were all female and all over 40.
was for a domestic abuse case of a guy on a green card from mexico, he had to have an interpreter as did his wife.
pretty cut and clear case, took the whole day but at least it didn't drag on forever.


Most of the women were very knowledgeable and we only considered charging him for the crime he was charged with. I was relatively impressed by the whole system.

but when it comes to kids, especially child molestation, they don't have the option of being able to get out, get away, make the choice to leave or stay so I don't feel I could be as fair from the beginning.

[sniper7]

and as to the question at hand, I think the system we have now does a pretty good job. the cops have their job to do, as does the DA, the defendant can get a lawyer to represent, they all go through the process of picking jurors, the judge is supposed to just follow the law although I feel at times that isn't exactly the case, but the end result is usually relatively fair and just.

professional paid jurors would just be another tax hike when the people could judge their fellow citizens instead.

the system isn't perfect by any means but I feel it does a pretty good job.