Module 7

Question 1

What are the two different judicial systems?

Answer 1

Adversarial - Common law system, lawyer vs. lawyer
Inquisitorial - Civil law, judge does research and gets involved

Question 2

What must a jury find in civil cases?

Answer 2

the balance of probabilities

Question 3

What must a jury find in criminal cases?

Answer 3

Beyond a reasonable doubt

Question 4

When you commit a minor crime (give examples), where are you processed and what it is called?

Answer 4

Summary, a minor crime like breach of probation, is processed by a provincial court

Question 5

When you commit a serious crime (give examples), where are you processed and what it is called?

Answer 5

Indictable, a crime like murder, conspiracy, treason, etc. you are tried by a jury. Other crimes its defendants choice.

Question 6

When you commit a minor and serious crime (give examples), where are you processed and what it is called?

Answer 6

Hybrid, prosecution decides summary vs. indictable

Question 7

What did Kalven and Zeisel show?

Answer 7

showed that judges agree with juries most of the time

Question 8

Who is eligible for jury? What is the punishment for ignoring a summons? When can one not serve in NS?

Answer 8

Canadian Citizen
Live in the province who submitted the summons
Be at least 18
For ignoring the commons = $1000 fine and possible jail time

Cannot serve if:
You’ve gone to law school
You work in the justice field (police, dept. of justice)
Member of House of Commons, Senate
Convicted of an indictable offense with a sentence of 2 years or more
Member of Armed Forces

Question 9

What are the three steps to jury selection?

Answer 9

Summons
Jury Pool
Jury

Question 10

What are two qualities of juries?

Answer 10

representative and impartial

Question 11

What would happen if there are threats to impartiality?

Answer 11

There would be an adjournment (delay of trial) or a change of venue (move trial to new location

Question 12

What are the sources of jury bias?

Answer 12

Familiarity and pretrial publicity

Question 13

What did Ruva & McEvoy show in pretrial publicity?

Answer 13

It was a mock jury study that showed news articles about the defendant who was charged with murder then told to ignore them. It showed that the pre-trial publicity did impact the number of guilty verdicts

Question 14

What did Watt show?

Answer 14

1) Negative pretrial publicity (PTP) is more common
2) Type of PTP impacts attitudes and verdicts (negative/positive defendant, negative victim)
3) mixed PTP can reduce bias

Question 15

Does race matter in juror decision-making? (extralegal factor)

Answer 15

Yes, Eberhardt et al. showed that being black led to more death sentences

Question 16

Does gender matter in juror decision-making? (extralegal factor)

Answer 16

If the defendant is a woman, jurors are less punitive
Women jurors are less punitive to defendants, expect in sexual assault cases

But this is small and inconsistent

Question 17

Does being attractive matter in juror decision-making? (extralegal factor)

Answer 17

Yes, being attractive makes it less likely you will be found guilty, Patty, 2008

Question 18

What are the limitations of jury research?

Answer 18

Importance of deliberations (jury decisions vs. juror decisions)
complexity/length of an actual trial
samples not representative of people on juries (community members vs. students vs. people who actually serve on juries)
People are not always aware of why they make the decisions that they do