Jury: Legal Aspects

Jury trial, once a routine, reasonably summary procedure for resolving criminal cases, has become one of the world's most cumbersome adjudicative mechanisms and one of the least accessible. In practice, this form of trial has been largely replaced by an administrative regime of plea bargaining. Jury trial now confronts some of the same challenges as other democratic institutions. Just as candidates for public office appear to be getting better at manipulating voters, lawyers, aided by professional jury consultants, appear to be getting better at stacking juries and manipulating jurors. Simplifying jury-selection and trial procedures to reduce the importance of the lawyers' maneuvering might better enable juries to speak for the community and also might make fair and workable trials more accessible to defendants and the public.