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A jury trial is a court proceeding whereby members of the public referred as the jury, are given the authority and the responsibility to make a legal finding that pertains a case which is then enforced by the judge. The relevance of jury is mostly found under the tenets of Common Law System where they are supposed to analyze the case by weighing the evidence presented before it, usually in order to arrive at a decision regarding questions of fact (Ramsland, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of jury trial cases and its selection.
Generally, there are six steps that are involved in trial cases that involve jurors; jury selection, opening statements, evidence presentation, closing arguments, jury instructions and deliberations (Hamilton.com, 2006). As we can see, some of the steps mentioned above are not unique to jury cases alone but are also present in bench trial cases. Jury selection is the first step which basically requires both the defendant and prosecution attorneys to be present in a session deliberated by the judge to pick 12 jurors out of a jury pool (Hamilton.com, 2006). This process is legally referred as voir dire and it serves two major purposes; it enables the attorneys to pick neutral jury and is also a process whereby each side attempts to pick positively biased jurors from their perspective.
For these reasons jury selection is hardly a straight forward process and is governed by certain rules of challenging the appointment of jurors; the peremptory challenge and challenge for cause (Hamilton.com, 2006). The instances for peremptory challenge are limited and it’s like an ace, whereby an attorney can seek to dismiss a potential juror without giving reasons where the challenge for cause argument is insufficient to strike out such juror. Once the selection of the jury has been finalized the next step is opening of the statements by the attorneys from the both sides who summarizes the facts of their defense or prosecution and is usually very brief (Ramsfeld, 2005).
The third step is the presentation of the evidence by both sides where the jury gets to listen while a judge resides over to address and rule on legal questions that are bound to come up now and then. During this stage attorneys from both sides have the right to invoke constitutional rights such as suppressing certain types of evidence from being presented in front of the jury. At times the judge may hold special hearings at chambers away from the jury in order to discuss and direct the trial process. After presentation of the evidence the attorneys presents the closing argument similar to opening statement but this time the focus is on urging the jury not to prosecute due to lack of enough evidence or prosecute based on evidence depending on which side the closing statement is coming from (Hamilton.com, 2006).
After the closing arguments, the jurors are expected to arrive at a decision that is unanimous, if otherwise the case is entered as a mistrial and new trial is scheduled; this is the final stage and is referred as deliberations (Ramsfeld, 2005). But before this the judge reads the jurors the laws and legal principles that governs the issues of the case and outlines the legal questions that needs determination, this is what is termed as charging the jury (Ramsfeld, 2005). Once the jury has reached a verdict the court reconvenes to hear it read out by the foreperson in the jury after which a judge enters the verdict and the jury is dismissed.
References
Hamilton.com. (2006). Steps in a Trial. Web.
Ramsfeld, J. (2005). The Five main Steps of a Jury Trial. Web.
Ramsland, K. (2004). The Art of Forensic Psychology. Web.
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