The legislative branch generates laws
The Executive branch determines how those laws will be enforced. and
The Judicial branch overturns those laws if they violate the constitution
A juror is a citizen drafted into the Judicial branch. As such he or she has a deep underlying duty to uphold the Constitution as well as decide the facts of a case.
If you think that the idea of nine appointed judges being able to thwart the will of the majority is bad, think about the idea of twelve randomly selected citizens being able to do the exact same thing.
I've never even heard of a jury being selected randomly. Instead both sides devote a tremendous amount of effort into insuring that the jurors are anything but random, they are carefully selected by each side to be malleable in that side's hands. Indeed there are a number of jury selection consultants whose entire reason for existing is to skew the jury towards a desired verdict, before a single scintilla of facts or law is ever presented.
Maybe it's time we selected jurors based on the ability to reason, not the ability to be led around.
Actually, randomness might be better. I'd suggest having a pool of 36 or 48 jurors in six or eight randomly-drawn groups of six. Each side's lawyer gets to strike two/three of the six/eight groups for any reason or no reason, but does not get to pick and choose.
BTW, one thing I was wondering about awhile ago: what happens or should happen if, during a case, a juror becomes aware of something that might impair his impartiality, but which he could not have known before the case?
As a hypothetical example, suppose that during a trial, a jury recognized one of the defendant's character witnesses as a shoplifter he'd observed in the act but failed to aprehend? Unless the jury was shown photos of all the witnesses before the trial (which I don't think is generally the case) there would be no way for the juror to know of the issue beforehand, but the juror's knowledge about the witness would preclude a fair and impartial evaluation of his testimony. What would be the legally correct and proper thing for the juror to do in such a case?
Maybe it's time we selected jurors based on the ability to reason, not the ability to be led around.>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sounds great but the pool would be limited, you might be one of those called for jury duty every month!