Chapter 7 Flashcards
Jury Act
Provincial and territorial legislation that outlines the eligibility criteria for jury service and how prospective jurors must be selected
Jury Summons
A court order that states a time and place to go for jury
Eligibility for Jury
-Canadian Citizen
-Be the age of majority (18)
Ineligibility for Jury
-Certain Professions
-Language
-Religious duties
-65+
-Once every 3-5 yrs
Jury selection
-Selected from list
-Part of jury pool
-Challenges
Peremptory Challenge
-Does not need a reason
-Murder trials: 20 challenges for each side
-Other trials: 12
Challenge for cause
-Must give a reason
(eg: too much pretrial publicity)
Representativeness
-A jury composition that represents the community where the crime occurred
-Is achieved through randomness
Impartiality
A characteristic of jurors who are unbiased
1-Set aside any pre existing bias
2-Ignore information that is not part of admissible evidence
3-No connection to defendant
Change of venue
Moving a trial to a community other than the one in which the crime occurred
Adjournment
Delaying the trial until sometime in the future
Jury Functions
1-To use the wisdom of 12 (rather than the wisdom of 1) to reach a verdict
2-To act as the conscience of the community
3-To protect against out-of-date laws
4-To increase knowledge about the justice system
Jury nullification
Occurs when a jury ignores the law and the evidence, rendering a verdict based on some other criteria
Chaos theory
The theory that when jurors are guided by their emotions and personal biases rather than by the law, chaos in judgments results
Studying jury behavior
1-Post trial interviews
2-Archives
3-Field studies
4-Simulation
