Courtney Lowes
Unit 23
P4
The role of the jury
A jury would be members of the public and the jury will only be involved in cases
within the Crown Court. A jury will be made up of 12 members, of both men and
women. They will be chosen randomly from the electoral role by a computer and
then would be summoned to a crown court in their local area. To be summoned they
would have to be 18 or over.
The jury will have the role of deciding if the defendant on the case is guilty or is not
guilty. They would look through all of the evidence that they are given, such as
witnesses and would then make a decision based on this.
There will be a member out of the jury which would be picked to be the foreperson;
this means that they would be the one that would deliver their final verdict to the
court after they have all decided what they think.
After a trial hearing has taken place, the jury would have to make a decision based
on all of the evidence that they have heard, they will be allowed to write notes
during the hearing so they will be able to remember their points clearly. However,
judges will now allow the decision to be 11:1, 10:2 and even 9:3.
All of the public will be expected to perform jury service if they get called to do so. If
somebody does not reply to a jury summon, they fail to show up at the time
necessary without a good reason, or cannot come in because of drink or drugs then
they can be prosecuted. However, some people can be un-eligible or disqualified
from doing jury service. People are allowed to defer their jury service; this could be
because of personal reasons such as having an operation or going on holiday, but
they would have to do their jury in the next 12 months.
Jurors will be disqualified from being a juror because of some things, one of these
would be if the person called to jury is on bail due to a criminal conviction, another
would be if they have a criminal conviction and have been sentenced to prison.
People can also be disqualified if they suffer from mental disorders which have
caused them to spend time getting treatment in a hospital. People can also be
discharged from jury service if the judge believes that the person would not be able
to perform correctly in the position, for an example this could be something such as
being deaf.
Unit 23
P4
The role of the jury
A jury would be members of the public and the jury will only be involved in cases
within the Crown Court. A jury will be made up of 12 members, of both men and
women. They will be chosen randomly from the electoral role by a computer and
then would be summoned to a crown court in their local area. To be summoned they
would have to be 18 or over.
The jury will have the role of deciding if the defendant on the case is guilty or is not
guilty. They would look through all of the evidence that they are given, such as
witnesses and would then make a decision based on this.
There will be a member out of the jury which would be picked to be the foreperson;
this means that they would be the one that would deliver their final verdict to the
court after they have all decided what they think.
After a trial hearing has taken place, the jury would have to make a decision based
on all of the evidence that they have heard, they will be allowed to write notes
during the hearing so they will be able to remember their points clearly. However,
judges will now allow the decision to be 11:1, 10:2 and even 9:3.
All of the public will be expected to perform jury service if they get called to do so. If
somebody does not reply to a jury summon, they fail to show up at the time
necessary without a good reason, or cannot come in because of drink or drugs then
they can be prosecuted. However, some people can be un-eligible or disqualified
from doing jury service. People are allowed to defer their jury service; this could be
because of personal reasons such as having an operation or going on holiday, but
they would have to do their jury in the next 12 months.
Jurors will be disqualified from being a juror because of some things, one of these
would be if the person called to jury is on bail due to a criminal conviction, another
would be if they have a criminal conviction and have been sentenced to prison.
People can also be disqualified if they suffer from mental disorders which have
caused them to spend time getting treatment in a hospital. People can also be
discharged from jury service if the judge believes that the person would not be able
to perform correctly in the position, for an example this could be something such as
being deaf.
