A Defense Of The Jury System Summary

Do you think judges and juries are biased toward the white population? Three articles that cover this topic are “How the Judicial System Works” by Jacob Silverman, “A Defense of the Jury System” by Thomas M. Ross, and “Six Million Trayvons: How the George Zimmerman Mindset Has Rigged the Justice System Against Young Black Men” by Judd Legum. After reading all three articles, it is clear that America’s justice system is unfair, and juries are biased toward white people.

The first reason why the jury is corrupt is because juries can be biased. In Thomas M. Ross’s article, he states, “Juries are criticized for deciding on cases based on prejudice and emotion rather than relying on the evidence and the law.” Juries might have sympathy or hatred for one of the victims based on previous experiences that can be related to the circumstance. This type of discriminatory judgement can lead to unjust

For example, in Jacob Silverman’s article the text reads, “If citizens didn’t give up some of their time to serve on juries, holding fair trials would be impossible. Jurors are randomly selected to ensure a cross-section of the population.” In other words, people will argue that since a jury is randomly selected, a trial will become fair. What many of these people don’t realize is that a sample of the jury might be slightly prejudice, which is generally directed towards black Americans, or might have previously heard some misleading info on the case. In this situation, part of the jury might hold some favoritism for the prosecutor or defense, and that is why a randomly selected jury is not always fair.

As you can see, there are many faults in the justice system. These faults, including one-sided juries, are what causes America’s justice system to be inequitable. So based on the information you just read, ask yourself once more, do you think that judges, juries, and the court process as a whole is bias towards white