FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY 2 👩🏽‍⚖️

What does every accused have a right to in Canada?

• And who decided that?

A Fair trial

• It was enshrined in the Charter Section 7 and 11(d)

Who generally has the Right to a trial by jury?

• and who was this defined by?

Those accused of Indictable offenses ( like homocide, SA, treason, etc)

• Charter, Section 11(f)

What did Charter, Section 11(f) say the Max punishment for Indictable offenses is?

Imprisonment for 5 years +

What are Summary offenses?

A trial by just a judge alone

What are Hybrid offenses?

A trial that could have a judge or a jury

What are the 2 trial options for Indictable offenses in Canada?

• A judge alone (for a less serious crime)

• A judge + jury (for very serious crimes)

Can an Accused choose between a judge-alone and a jury trial?

For certain offenses, yes, while for others the law determines automatically selects a jury for them

What is the Juries act?

A Provincial legislation that outlines the criteria for someone to be eligible to be a jury

What are the 2 obligations to be a Juror in Canada?

Must be:

• Canadian citizen

• At least 18 in most provinces

+Who is Disqualified from jury service in Saskatchewan?+

• Not a Canadian citizen, resident of SK, or at least 18 years of age.

• Members of the Privy Council, the Senate, and the House of Commons;

• Members and officers of the Legislative Assembly;

• Reeves, councillors, and mayors;

• Members of boards of education, the Conseil Scolaire Fransaskois, and boards of trustees of school districts or conseil d'ecoles

• People who are or at any time have been judges, lawyers, members of any police force, justices of the peace, or coroners;

• Officials or employees of the Saskatchewan Department of Justice, or the Canada

• Department of Justice or Department of the Solicitor General;

• Spouses of the above persons;

• People who are legally confined in an institution;

• People who are certified incompetent;

• People who are unable to understand the language in which the trial is to be conducted

What are the 7 other Disqualifications from jury service in Saskatchewan?

• Ppl with a Justifiable excuse or hardship

• If you’re a new mother that’s Breastfeeding

• If you’re the Primary caregiver

• If your Job can’t be done without you

• If you Booked a non-refundable vacation

• If you’re too Influential of a person

• If you have a Personal interest in the issue

Since all these ppl are disqualified, who’s left for jury duty?

Older, middle aged, retired ppl + Students…not great.

How has the concept of a jury been regarded in the past?

• And what are 3 lines about that?

Not very highly

• Glanville Williams (British legal scholar) : “it is an understatement to describe a jury as a group of twelve men of average ignorance”

• E. N. Griswold (former Dean, Harvard L.S.): “Why should anyone think that twelve persons brought in from the street, selected in ways for their lack of general ability, should have any special capacity for deciding controversies…?”

• Jerome Frank (American jurist and academic): “While the jury can contribute nothing of value so far as the law is concerned, it has infinite capacity for mischief, for twelve men can easily misunderstand more law in a minute than the judge can explain in an hour” From Boyd, 1995, p.151

How many people are in the Jury in a Criminal trial?

• and how many are in Civil cases in the USA?

12 ppl

• 6

What is a Summons?

How you are officially called to jury selection, usually via mail

In Canada, what happens after you’re summoned?

You’re supposed to report for jury duty, then at that point ur part of the Venire

What is a Venire?

The Group of potential jurors/jury panel

What happens after you’re part of the Venire?

The Lawyers/judges asks questions to determine if a potential juror should be excluded or not

What do Lawyers/judges have limited info on?

• Give 4 examples

Prospective jurors,

• Name

• Address

• Occupation

• Physical demeanor/Interaction

What is a Challenge for cause?

It’s where if a lawyer/judge is questioning a potential juror and can tell they’re biased they can challenge them for being unfit for jury. (Only in Canada)

What is a Pre-emptory challenge?

where a judge/lawyer can question a potential juror for being unfit with no reason at all → In the US (+ in Canada prior to 2019)

What are the 5 steps of a Juror impaneling process in Canada (s.631)?

1. Each juror's name and address written on a card.

2. Cards given to the Sheriff.

3. Sheriff mixes up cards and gives them to the clerk of the court.

4. Clerk draws the cards out randomly until a sufficient number have been drawn to provide a full jury after allowing for challenges. (→ Where questions could be asked to see if the member of the potential jury can be kept or not)

5. Each member of the panel is sworn in

What is the Basis of a jury?

That the individuals are deciding the facts of the case (so conviction or not) from trial evidence

What are the 2 main Ideas of a jury?

• That we’re using the wisdom of 12 instead of 1 (which is the primary argument for why the jury still exists)

• Even if we have individuals who may have certain biases/beliefs, having so many ppl with diff backgrounds + life experiences work together is supposed to help mitigate some of those potential biases

What does the Jury increase?

Knowledge about the justice system

What does the Jury process provide?

Education for the citizens about how the system, trial, jury, and deliberation process works

What does the Judge do at the beginning + end of a jury trial?

• and what does the jury do then?

the Judge gives a lot of instructions for juries (like a script)

• They apply the law provided by the judge, its up to them to listen to these instructions + apply the law as it’s been guided by the judge

What is the Jury not responsible for?

The Sentencing (time of it)

What 2 things can the jury also do?

• give me an example

They can Function as Community consciousness + Protect against out-of-date laws

• Dr. Henry Morgentaler

What’s the case of Dr. Henry Morgentaler?

He was arrested + charged in the 70s, cuz he opened a private clinic in Montreal to provide abortions when they were illegal, and he wasnt even hiding it. When he got arrested, the jury said he was not guilty and nullified the law even tho it was illegal cuz they thought the law was outdated. The court rules the case ‘Legallly void’, but it didn’t matter he still went to jail cuz of Court of appeals. But when he came out he did the same thing again 😂, and then the  completely seperate jury also said he wasnt guilty. So that told the government that this law was outdated, and so as a result, he became a leading figure in overturning the abortion laws + making them legal in Canada (so they nullified the law).

What are the 2 Characteristics of a Jury?

• Representativness

• Impartiality

What 2 things does Representativeness of a jury mean?

That the members should be:

• Randomly selected from the community (jury list)

• Representative of the community (so a part of it)

What is Impartiality of the jury mean?

Their ability to remain Neutral + Unbiased when deciding a case.

What 4 things should an Impartial jury be able to do?

• Set aside bias

• Ignore any inadmissible evidence

• Have no connection to defendant

• Avoid letting Attitudinal + Behavioral problems affect the verdict (if they have these biases they should work thru it)

What is Attitudinal prejudice?

The attitudes, beliefs, or biases a person holds about another person/group.

What is Behavioral discrimination?

Acting on prejudiced attitudes or beliefs in a way that treats someone unfairly.

What are the 4 Sources of Juror bias?

• Interest prejudice

• Specific prejudice

• Generic prejudice

• Normative prejudice

What is Interest prejudice?

Someone who has a Direct interest in the case

• Eg, Family member; or if you can benefit from the outcome

What is Specific prejudice?

Attitudes about the specific case (biased)

• Eg, If there’s been a lot of media coverage of a high profile cases (Canada usually bans media coverage)

Why does Canada usually ban Media coverage?

Cuz pre-trial publicity is very influential in the decision making process

What is Generic prejudice?

Beliefs about people or crime

• E.g., racism; strong beliefs about child molestation (so string you can’t be unbiased)

What is Normative prejudice?

Community sentiment

• E.g., if you live in a logging town, you don’t want the business to be found guilty because many people will lose their jobs.