Our Swiss Cheese Legal System
Swiss Cheese? Does our legal system smell funny? No, it just has many holes. While not a perfect system, it is better than many other legal systems found around the world.
I’m not really sure where to begin my ramblings, so don’t mind if thoughts are mixed. A juries job is to determine the innocence or guilt of a defendant based on evidence that is presented. So far so good. The problem here is the presentation of the evidence, more specifically, the lawyers.
Lawyers will not give the whole story, they only present one side. Lawyers will not present all evidence. Lawyers instruct their witness on what to say and how to say it. This poses a problem for the jurors. Jurors may find themselves asking questions about things that were glazed over and wonder how they can make a decision without such info. Some of you are thinking, “but that is what cross examination is for”. While this is partly true, the problem with cross examination is that you do not want an answer that is detrimental to their case.
Solution: get rid of lawyers and allow the jurors to ask the questions. If the juror has the power to decide guilt, then the juror should be given the opportunity to get answers to everything, not just what a lawyer wants you to hear.
Agreed and I like that idea. Unfortunately, it would never happen because we cannot rid the world of Lawyers.
Most jurors (not you) are too stupid to ask any questions. I’m not sure if this would work here, but in Poland they had “professional” jurors. Basically it was a committee that would serve in that capacity.