[WS:] That is not necessarily a bad thing - it really depends on the particulars of the case, no?
I am not a big fan of juries, grand or petite. I think in most cases, that is one involving common crimes, the jury process does not matter that much. In these cases the justice can be as well served by a panel of judges, as it is the case of many European countries. A jury trail can turn into a farce in cases involving celebrities, and I can think of cases where the defendant would be better off to plead guilty and plead for leniency than going through a jury trial (cf. a Middle Eastern defendant accused of terrorism.) I can also see cases in which a jury process can lead to a prosecution or a conviction of, say, politically powerful defendants who would get a free ride from prosecutors or judges.
Another problem is that jury selection process is rigged. It has been turned to a science that high power attorneys (i.o. one that the rich can afford) can use to pack the jury with folks who are more likely to deliver the verdict they want.
In sum, I do not think that the jury process is inherently good or inherently bad, or that it is superior to criminal justice systems that do not use juries. It really depends on the quality of the legal system, especially its ability to withstand pressure and manipulations, not whether it uses the jury process.
Wojtek
On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 8:28 PM, michael perelman
<michael.perelman3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> The Grand Jury increases the power of prosecutors, who can use them to
> coerce testimony from others.
>
> On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 1:57 PM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So would you prefer the prosecutor alone decide whether there is
>> enough evidence to file charges?
>>
>> I'd say that in high profile cases where there could be strong
>> political pressure on prosecutors, grand juries offer a better chance
>> for due process.
>>
>
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> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
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