A Trial By Jury

Download or read book A Trial by Jury written by D. Graham Burnett and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2002-10-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Princeton historian D. Graham Burnett answered his jury duty summons, he expected to spend a few days catching up on his reading in the court waiting room. Instead, he finds himself thrust into a high-pressure role as the jury foreman in a Manhattan trial. There he comes face to face with a stunning act of violence, a maze of conflicting evidence, and a parade of bizarre witnesses. But it is later, behind the closed door of the jury room, that he encounters the essence of the jury experience — he and eleven citizens from radically different backgrounds must hammer consensus out of confusion and strong disagreement. By the time he hands over the jury’s verdict, Burnett has undergone real transformation, not just in his attitude toward the legal system, but in his understanding of himself and his peers. Offering a compelling courtroom drama and an intimate and sometimes humorous portrait of a fractious jury, A Trial by Jury is also a finely nuanced examination of law and justice, personal responsibility and civic duty, and the dynamics of power and authority between twelve equal people.

Download or read book History of Trial by Jury written by William Forsyth and published by . This book was released on 1875 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Jury Crisis written by Drury R. Sherrod and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-02-08 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Juries have a bad reputation. Often jurors are seen as incompetent, biased and unpredictable, and jury trials are seen as a waste of time and money. In fact, so few criminal and civil cases reach a jury today that trial by jury is on the verge of extinction. Juries are being replaced by mediators, arbitrators and private judges. The wise trial of “Twelve Angry Men” has become a fiction. As a result, a foundation of American democracy is about to vanish. The Jury Crisis: What’s Wrong with Jury Trials and How We Can Save Them addresses the near collapse of the jury trial in America – its causes, consequences, and cures. Drury Sherrod brings his unique perspective as a social psychologist who became a jury consultant to the reader, applying psychological research to real world trials and explaining why juries have become dysfunctional. While this collapse of the jury can be traced to multiple causes, including poor public education, the absence of peers and community standards in a class-stratified, racially divided society, and people’s reluctance to serve on a jury, the focus of this book is on the conduct of trials themselves, from jury selection to evidence presentation to jury deliberations. Judges and lawyers believe – wrongly – that jurors can put aside their biases, sit quietly through hours, days or weeks of conflicting testimony, and not make up their minds until they have heard all the evidence. Unfortunately, the human brain doesn’t work that way. A great deal of psychological research on jurors and other decision-makers shows that our brains intuitively leap to story-telling before we rationally analyze “facts,” or evidence. Weaving details into a narrative is how we make sense of the world, and it’s very hard to suppress this tendency. Consequently, a majority of jurors actually make up their minds before they have heard much of the evidence. Judges, arbitrators and mediators have similar biases. The Jury Crisis deals with an important social problem, namely the near collapse of a thousand year old institution, and proposes how to fix the jury system and restore trial by jury to a more prominent place in American society.

Download or read book Thomas More's Trial by Jury written by Henry Ansgar Kelly and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 2011 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges the recently established consensus that the trial was a carefully prepared and executed judicial process in which the judges were amenable to reasonable arguments. Thomas More's treason trial in 1535 is one of history's most famous court cases, yet never before have all the major documents been collected, translated, and analyzed by a team of legal and Tudor scholars. This edition serves asan important sourcebook and concludes with a 'docudrama' reconstructing the course of the trial based on these documents. Legal experts H. A. Kelly and R. H. Helmholz take different approaches to the legalities of this trial, and four experienced judges [including Justice of the Queen's Bench Sir Michael Tugendhat] discuss the trial with some disagreements - notably on the meaning and requirement of 'malice' called for in the Parliamentary Act of Supremacy. More's own accounts of his interrogations in prison are analyzed, and the trial's procedures are compared to and contrasted with 16th-century concepts of natural law and also modern judicial practices and principles. The book is a 'must read' not only for students of law and Tudor history but also for all concerned with justice and due process. As a whole, the book challenges Duncan Derrett's conclusions that the trial was conducted in accord with contemporary legal norms and that More was convicted only on the single charge of denying Parliament the power to declare Henry VIII Supreme Head of the English Church [testified to by Richard Rich] - a position that has been uniformly accepted by historians since 1964. HENRY ANSGAR KELLY is past Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA. LOUIS W. KARLIN is an attorney with the California Court of Appeal and Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies, University of Dallas. GERARD B. WEGEMER is Director of the Center for Thomas More Studies.

Download or read book On the Jury Trial written by Thomas M. Melsheimer and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2017-10-15 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two outstanding Texas trial lawyers—one of whom is now an equally respected district judge—have written On the Jury Trial, a “must have” reference for any trial lawyer aspiring to excellence or seeking to maintain it. Thomas M. Melsheimer and Judge Craig Smith have crafted a narrative-driven advice guide for trial lawyers to hone their craft. Chapter topics include voir dire, opening statement, preparing witnesses, cross examination, using exhibits, closing argument, jury research, and more, with excellent examples and “do’s and don’ts” provided throughout. Think of this book as the senior law partner’s memo to associates on how to really try a case. Looking for fly-on-the-wall insight into world-class trial preparation and strategy? Here it is. A behind-the-scenes tour of the inner workings of the judicial process? This book has you covered. Its combination of advice, illustration, and commentary is every bit as valuable as it is unique. Every litigator should have this book on the shelf, no matter the state in which they practice. The jury trial is a critical component of our democratic society, and its use in civil cases is unique to the United States. It is truly an example of our participatory democracy in action, and yet the jury trial is under attack from all sides, most notably from special interest groups who seek to have more cases decided by individual judges or by arbitration. These efforts have resulted in a decline of civil jury trials all over the country. A decline in the jury trial is a decline in justice. To preserve the jury trial, we must preserve the skills of trying a case effectively and efficiently. On the Jury Trial, in no small way, will add significantly to that effort.

Download or read book Thomas Erskine and Trial by Jury written by John Hostettler and published by Waterside Press. This book was released on 2010-06-24 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Erskine (1750-1823) was one of the greatest advocates ever to appear in an English court of law. As King’s Counsel he was involved in many celebrated trials, including the prosecution of John Horne Took for seditious libel and of Queen Caroline for adultery. His other notable achievements include the successful defence of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, which cost him the post of Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales. Erskine also served as Member of Parliament for Portsmouth and for just one year as Lord Chancellor. Latterly the First Baron Erskine, this book covers his controversial career and rise to high office. An ideal companion to Sir William Garrow (Waterside Press 2010). Reviews 'This commendable study by John Hostettler deserves a wide readership as the Scots may still reasonably take pride in the achievements of Lord Erskine of Restormel Castle (in the Fowey Valley, Cornwall) and English lawyers may understandably recall with respect his marked abilities amongst other great lawyers of the era': SCOLAG 'Almost 200 years after Thomas Erskine's death most barristers and solicitor advocates still aspire to his legendary oratorical and forensic skills. Those who are not familiar with the man would be well advised to read this biography without delay': Law Society Gazette 'This work is of more than historical interest. It shows how the advocate can affect the law, and by doing so, the constitution': Counsel 'Thomas Erskine was one of the bar's greatest names. Few however know this extraordinary story of the man who traced his way from poverty through the navy all the way to the bar and Parliament to the House of Lords and the Woolsack. John Hostettler's biography explores this astonishing man and his even more astonishing life': Litigation 'With eloquent invective Erskine mesmerized juries': Justice of the Peace Author John Hostettler is one of the 1st’s leading legal biographers. He was a practising solicitor in London for thirty-five years as well as undertaking political and civil liberties cases in Nigeria, Germany and Aden An ideal companion to Sir William Garrow (Waterside Press 2010).

Download or read book Jury Trial Innovations written by G. T. Munsterman and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: