juries Flashcards
So, you’ve been called for jury duty…
Types of Cases you may serve on:
◦ Civil – breach of contract or claims of harm (‘suing’) – 6-8 jurors
◦ Verdicts do not have to be unanimous
◦ Criminal – act allegedly committed as per the Criminal Code of Canada – 12 jurors
◦ Both can be heard by judge or jury alone
◦ Most highly serious criminal cases require both a jury and a judge
But first, the selection process
The Juries Act: provincial and territorial legislation that outlines eligibility
criteria for jury service
In Ontario, you are excused if:
◦ You are under 18 years old
◦ Physically or mentally unable
◦ Have a conflict of interest
◦ You are working in law
enforcement
◦ You have been convicted of a
criminal offense
◦ You are a judge, lawyer, or law student
◦ You are a member of Senate, House of Commons,
or the Assembly
◦ You are a medical practitioner, vet surgeon, or
coroner
Jury Selection
Jury Summons: court order that states
a time and place to go for jury duty
◦ Does not guarantee that you will be a
juror
Lawyers used to be able to reject
potential jurors
◦ Now only judges can remove potential
jurors
Jury Selection needs 2 things
Each compiled jury should have:
◦ Representativeness: composition represents the
community in which the crime occurred
◦ Are there enough men, women, young, old, racial
minorities, etc.?
◦ Indigenous representation has been a problem
◦ Impartiality: lack of bias within the jury
Jury Selection: Impartiality
To be impartial means to:
1. Set aside pre-existing biases and prejudices
2. Ignore information that is not part of admissible evidence
3. Have no connection to the defendant
Jury Selection: Impartiality R. v. Guess
R. v. Guess (1998)
Peter Gill was tried for 2 gang-style
murders in 1995 in Vancouver
Gillian Guess was a juror
Gill and Guess ran into each other
outside of court and started a
sexual relationship
Both charged with obstruction of
justice
Challenge for cause:
a request that prospective juror be dismissed due to
specific or forceful reason to believe the person cannot be fair, unbiased, and capable of serving as a juror
The Role of the Media Jury Selection
Emotionally charged headlines can sway jury
members
◦ As negative pretrial publicity increases, so does:
◦ The likelihood of guilty verdicts
◦ Beliefs about deserved severity of sentence
◦ Beliefs about the suspect’s maliciousness
◦ Errors in jury members’ memory
◦ Discussions about information from the media within
jury deliberations
Jury Functions (3)
Apply the law, as
provided by the
judge, to the
admissible evidence
Use the wisdom of
12 to reach a verdict
Act as a conscience
to the community
Does it matter who is on the jury?
Male jurors more likely to endorse rape myths
◦ Assign less responsibility to the accused and more
responsibility to the accuser
Mock jurors more likely to render guilty verdicts for ‘other-race’
defendants than for defendants of their own race
◦ This effect is small and can be reduced by making defendant’s race
salient
◦ May not be as influential for Canadian jurors
Authoritarianism:
conservative, rigid thinkers
who acquiesce to authority
◦ Right-wing political views
Dogmatism
rigid and closed-minded
◦ No political undertones
Those high in authoritarianism and dogmatism
render more_______ verdicts
guilty
Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST)
information can be processed
through two modes – rational and experiential
R-processors:
rational processing – analysis of fact and logic
