Jury Service in the United States

Jury Service as a Political Right

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled JURY SERVICE AS A POLITICAL RIGHTIn his article in this encyclopedia on jury discrimination, James Boyd White identified a, if not the, central question as being “[w]hat exclusions, beyond racial ones, are improper?” The dozen or so cases the Supreme Court decided during the 1990s have served to
(read more about Constitutional law entries here).

Some Constitutional Law Popular Entries

Jury Service and the Federal Courts

In the words of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts: One of the most important ways individual citizens become involved with the federal judicial process is by serving as jurors. There are two types of juries serving distinct functions in the federal trial courts: trial juries (also known as petit juries), and grand juries. The functioning of a trial jury varies slightly depending upon whether the trial is for a civil or criminal case. A civil trial jury typically consists of 6 to 12 persons, while a criminal trial jury is made up of 12 jurors. In a civil case, the role of the jury is to listen to the evidence presented, to decide whether the defendant injured the plaintiff or otherwise failed to fulfill a legal duty to the plaintiff, and to determine what the remedy, compensation, or penalty should be. Criminal juries decide whether the defendant committed the crime as charged, while a judge determines the defendant’s sentence. Verdicts in both civil and criminal cases must be unanimous, unless the parties in a civil case agree to a non-unanimous verdict. A jury’s deliberations are conducted in private, out of sight and hearing of the judge, litigants, witnesses, and others in the courtroom. A grand jury, which consists of 16 to 23 members, has a specialized function to perform before a felony criminal case is filed in the district court. The U.S. attorney, the prosecutor in federal criminal cases, presents evidence to the grand jury for them to determine whether there is “probable cause” to believe that an individual has committed a crime and should be put on trial. If the grand jury decides there is enough evidence, it will issue an indictment against the defendant. Grand jury proceedings are not open for public observation.