Jury Duty? Whats the point? Why do we even need Jurors? Why not just let the judge make the decision instead of some random people they picked out of the pool?
by 
verbal_assassin
ANSWERS: 7
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Well, i suppose it's more unlikely that a pool of 12 people has a grudge against you than a single judge has a grudge against you. That said, you are welcome to say that you want a trial by the judge, or a bench trial or whatever the term is, if you don't want to have a jury try your fate.
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Some courts require jurors, some work with just a judge...it depends on the type of court. The point of a jury is that some trials require (by law) a jury of peers to make decisions.
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It's the law... "... a jury of your peers ..." or basically, people who live in the same place as you, unless there's pre-trial publicity there that requires a change of venue. Either way, it's up to the lawyer and prosecutor to pick from the jury pool. ;-)
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To avoid the obvious pitfalls of having value decisions on human lives made by a single party who could easily abuse his or her power. The Constitution grants us a fair trial by a jury of our peers. Very important for objectivity, and to avoid potentially dangerous conflicts of interest.
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• 12 people make the decision, not just one, making the result of the trial less down to the chance of which judge you get. • Considered as one of the fundamentals of democratic society. • Juries are not bound to follow legal precedent, and so can decide a case on the facts of that case alone. • Makes the justice system more accessable to the public, rather than just having a few old, clever people that no-one knows deciding cases. • The juries decision does not have to be justified, so again they are free to judge on the facts of the case. • The juries can not be fired like judges can for making a decision that someone important disagrees with. • Juries are impartial, they have no bias to either the prosecution or the defense, whereas a judge can become “case hardened”
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Judges are part of "The Establishment". They are part of the well off, highly educated elite of the country. Anybody poor or disadvantaged will think, rightly or wrongly, that they will not get a fair hearing from such a person. The point of Jurors is that they are not part of the establisment. The are "just folks" - they will judge by everyday standards, not by the rarefied logic of a trained, hair-splitting, lawyer. It is particularly important when the political sustem starts to go wrong. An over-powerful ruler can stack the Judfges with his own men. But he cannot stack the jury.
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maybe cause they want the random people to help make the decisions
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