Jury Trial

Judges

• Make legal decisions during trial

• Make sure everything runs smoothly

• Ultimately determine sentencing

• Elected or appointed

• Politicized

Other in Courtroom Workgroup

• Bailiff

• Clerk

• Court Reporter

• Social Workers

Jury Selection

• Jury Selection → Opening Statements → Present Evidence → Closing arguments → Judges charge to Jury → Deliberation → Verdict → Sentencing or Acquittal

• Fact Finders

• Federal Courts require 12

• State courts require 12 jurors for capital cases (variation)

• Venire: List of potential jurors; representative of the population; cannot exclude based on race or gender

• Voir Dire: Preliminary examination of jury members; Peremptory Challenge (Attorney removal of potential juror, Batson v. Kentucky (1986)) 

Opening Statements

• Summarized, logical, factual, and vivid mental picture of what actually transpired

Presentation of Evidence

• Strict rules on how evidence must be presented

• Direct Evidence: Directly links individual to events/crime, eyewitness testimony, video recording

• Circumstantial Evidence: An inference or assumption something happened, finger prints, DNA, hair fibers, eyewitness

Closing Arguments

• Opportunity for defense and prosecution to summarize evidence and arguments for the jury

Judge’s Charge to the Jury

• Instructs jury on law they must follow

• May reiterate that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty

• Beyond a reasonable doubt (a reasonable person would have no reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty as charged)

Jury Deliberation

• Jury is taken to a location to select a jury Foreman/Woman, deliberate, and reach a verdict

• Several Outcomes: Guilty (State criminal courts (12 of 12)), unanimity is required when jury consists of 6, unanimity is required for a federal criminal case, Hung Jury (deadlock, judge will declare a mistrial, Allen Charge), Acquittal