You get a pool of people that have sat through a trial, and they then go to deliberate.
Getting twelve people in a room that all agree on anything is not likely. Getting a dozen that all choose to ignore the instructions to make their consensus based on allowed evidence is rolling the dice, but not likely.
I’m a contrarian old bastard, and I’d still ignore most things that a judge ruled to disregard. Most of the time, if something is ruled as inadmissible, there’s a reason that’s good. As flawed as all court systems are, there are still underlying principles that are in place to maken it less likely a jury will make a decision based on testimony that violates the defendants’ rights, and/or violates procedure to such a degree that it could sway a jury in a prejudicial way.
And, again, this is coming from a grumpy old bastard that doesn’t like taking orders, and very strongly believes the US justice system in particular needs to be deeply reformed. I’d still do my best to follow an order to disregard testimony, and if the ruling was justified, I’d be sitting there arguing like hell against any other juror that wanted to use it to sway the consensus of the jury.
But did you notice the “if the ruling was justified” part? That’s on the jury to decide, and each juror bears the weight of that decision. That’s part of what serving on a jury means. We, as citizens, have the obligation to not just serve as jurors when needed, but to serve as a balance to the justice system. When a ruling isn’t good, it’s incumbent on us to argue against that ruling while trying to come to a verdict.
That’s the horror and the beauty of a jury system. It’s regular people doing a difficult job they probably don’t want to do, may be utterly incapable of doing well, and have the onus of deciding another person’s fate. The horror part is greatest when the jurors don’t understand the responsibility of the task. But it is the second biggest way that citizens can provide checks and balances to the system as a whole. The absolute biggest being revolution in some form.
It’s kinda relying on human nature.
You get a pool of people that have sat through a trial, and they then go to deliberate.
Getting twelve people in a room that all agree on anything is not likely. Getting a dozen that all choose to ignore the instructions to make their consensus based on allowed evidence is rolling the dice, but not likely.
I’m a contrarian old bastard, and I’d still ignore most things that a judge ruled to disregard. Most of the time, if something is ruled as inadmissible, there’s a reason that’s good. As flawed as all court systems are, there are still underlying principles that are in place to maken it less likely a jury will make a decision based on testimony that violates the defendants’ rights, and/or violates procedure to such a degree that it could sway a jury in a prejudicial way.
And, again, this is coming from a grumpy old bastard that doesn’t like taking orders, and very strongly believes the US justice system in particular needs to be deeply reformed. I’d still do my best to follow an order to disregard testimony, and if the ruling was justified, I’d be sitting there arguing like hell against any other juror that wanted to use it to sway the consensus of the jury.
But did you notice the “if the ruling was justified” part? That’s on the jury to decide, and each juror bears the weight of that decision. That’s part of what serving on a jury means. We, as citizens, have the obligation to not just serve as jurors when needed, but to serve as a balance to the justice system. When a ruling isn’t good, it’s incumbent on us to argue against that ruling while trying to come to a verdict.
That’s the horror and the beauty of a jury system. It’s regular people doing a difficult job they probably don’t want to do, may be utterly incapable of doing well, and have the onus of deciding another person’s fate. The horror part is greatest when the jurors don’t understand the responsibility of the task. But it is the second biggest way that citizens can provide checks and balances to the system as a whole. The absolute biggest being revolution in some form.