We the Jury: The Impact of Jurors on Our Basic Freedoms : Great Jury Trials of History - Hardcover

Lehman, Godfrey D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573921440 ISBN 13: 9781573921442

Publisher: Prometheus, 1997

Synopsis

Your worst nightmare: twelve jurors stand between you and a miscarriage of justice, and none of them have read this book. Few doubt that America's judicial system is one of the fairest, but we all agree it has problems. Sometimes it must enforce unjust laws, or administer laws in ways that seem inherently unfair. In criminal cases, each participant has his or her proper role: the government prosecutes, the lawyer for the accused defends, the judge referees, and the jury renders a decision. But few realize the extraordinary power juries have to take control of court proceedings gone wrong, to undo miscarriages of justice, and help preserve the liberties we hold so dear.

Judicial history student and veteran juror Godfrey D. Lehman has compiled 12 cases from England and the U.S. in which jurors have taken it upon themselves, as a matter of conscience, to nullify or overturn horrific laws that endangered our freedoms. This is a wake-up call and a must read for historians, lawyers, judges, and, of course, all prospective jurors.

About this title

From Booklist:

Because most Americans doubt the decision of one of the Simpson juries, it's not hard to find folks who have lost faith in the system and support calls for "jury reform" --from smaller panels to split verdicts to restrictions on jurors' powers. Lehman, a writer and lecturer who specializes in this subject, disagrees: "When jurors receive all the evidence, when they are informed of their full powers, when they are left to themselves, when they are free of outside influences, and when there are twelve of them together--in short, when they are independent, they almost invariably prove that they are the ultimate guardians and defenders of the people's liberties." Lehman traces classic cases, from Britain and czarist Russia to the U.S., from colonial days to the twentieth century. Obstacles to independent juries, Lehman holds, include jury consultants and the voir dire process, exclusion of evidence, and judicial reluctance to acknowledge juries' nullification powers. Overwritten but useful in balancing "reform" proponents. Mary Carroll

About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1573921440
• ISBN 13: 9781573921442
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 369