Jury Duty Dbq

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Hundreds of years ago, the jury system arose in England. A ruler named King George soon took away the right for people to have a trial by jury, which is ordinary citizens drawn to help decide a case based on presented evidence. This made many Americans angry and upset for what he had taken from them. The US Constitution guaranteed the right to have trial by jury, which the founders made sure of that and also is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. It was listed in the Declaration of Independence as a reason for the American colonist to separate from Great Britain. Having jury duty helps serve as a responsibility for the American citizens to help repay the government for the things they do and protection they provide. Even though this is a good …show more content…

Then there are bench trials which is where there is only one judge and they decide the verdict, which is the result/decision of a case. The Administrative Office of the United States took an annual report of verdicts in Federal Courts in the year 2010. Bench trials had a more reasonable result and the acquitted and convicted were more honest while most of the Jury trials were all resulted as convicted. (Document A) These stats help show that having a judge with more knowledge deciding a case will give the defendants more of a fair case. No person wants someone random deciding their sentence of that …show more content…

This comic shows people having different thoughts and not focusing on the evidence and the case itself. It is not at all fair to the defendant to be pleaded guilty or not guilty by people who could have no clue or care about what will be decided for that person. Having a real judge would help the defendant have a fair trial and their result be based off true facts and evidence by an educated judge. Another cartoon has a character saying, “We, the jury, find the defendant to be as guilty as he looks.” (Jonny Hawkins, Document E) The main idea trying to get put across is that having these people who know nothing deciding the defendant’s case when you could have a good judge is much more appropriate for this type of

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