Sustainable juries: thinking outside peer criminal jury trials

Abstract

This paper acknowledges the traditional arguments in favour of a jury system but notes some practical difficulties with their use, in particular relating to jurors’ understanding of what can be complex evidence, the decision processes used by some jurors to reach conclusions, and the extent to which jurors understand and apply the concept of reasonable doubt. If they ever were truly representative of the population, they are not today given the ease with which some are able to exempt themselves from service, and the system by which potential jurors can be challenged. It argues for greater education of jurors in key concepts associated with the criminal trial, and the use of special juries in some complex cases where the circumstances of the trial make it unlikely that a typical jury would understand the case or the evidence, compromising their ability to discharge their important function.