Juries

The jury is one of the cornerstones of the judicial system in the United States. Although it has varied historically, an ideal jury today consists of twelve citizens drawn from a panel representing a fair crosssection of the community. The jury's tasks are to observe the trial, to engage in deliberations behind closed doors, and to reach a verdict. The jurors have been selected to serve on the jury because they can be impartial, which means that they do not have a fixed view of the case but can decide it either way, depending on the evidence. In addition, they do not have any stake in the outcome of the case or any familial relationship with the participants in the trial. The ideal of the impartial juror applies to the jury whether it is hearing a civil or criminal case or sitting in a state or federal court. Although the American jury today depends on impartial jurors, this is a modern requirement; juries in medieval times, for example, sought to be just the opposite.

The modern American jury provides benefits to the parties to the trial, the community, and the jurors. From the parties' perspective, the jury, which consists of ordinary citizens, is beneficial because it introduces the commonsense judgment of the community into the decision-making process. From the community's perspective, the jury is beneficial because it consists of a group of citizens who serve for only one case and then return to their private lives, resulting in a system that is unlikely to be manipulated. From the juror's perspective, jury duty is beneficial because it provides a first-hand opportunity to participate in selfgovernance and to learn about the judicial system. In the words of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), who visited America over 170 years ago, the jury is invaluable because it serves as a “free school,” training citizens in the responsibilities of citizenship.

Although the jury provides all of these benefits, its main function has traditionally been fact-finding. The idea is that a group of twelve citizens, coming from different backgrounds and having different perspectives, will be able to recollect, challenge, and evaluate the evidence at trial to provide accurate fact-finding.

The jury plays several important roles other than fact finder, but it is the fact-finding function that the judge emphasizes to the jury. Although the jury has always played a fact-finding role, this role has changed over time. The medieval jury exercised greater independence in its fact-finding than today's jury does, and the early American jury exercised both fact-finding and law-judging roles that today's jury does not have, at least not explicitly.