Deck 5: Trial by Jury

Question 1

The grand jury is a jury of_______ and_______

A) Authority; decides if the defending party is innocent or guilty
B) Power; is the only type of jury that can enforce capitol punishment
C) Inquiry ; hears the state's evidence and decides if a trial is warranted
D) Peace; will not, under any circumstances enforce capitol punishment

Answer 1

Inquiry ; hears the state's evidence and decides if a trial is warranted

Question 2

According to chapter 5, the idea of trial by jury

A) Is an ancient concept in Anglo-Saxon systems of jurisprudence and evidence of these kinds of trials go as far back as 1066 in England
B) Was a concept that arose in the early Americas, with its roots being in the thirteen colonies
C) Is an ancient Greek concept that was not adopted into American law until the birth of the Salem witch trials
D) Is idealistic, but in reality, it is a faulty system that rarely administers true justice

Answer 2

Is an ancient concept in Anglo-Saxon systems of jurisprudence and evidence of these kinds of trials go as far back as 1066 in England

Question 3

In terms of the right to trial by jury, it can be noted that in the 1600's and early 1700's

A) The right to trial by jury was not explicitly recognized by American or English law systems
B) When a trial by jury was held, jurors had to meet proper qualifications to serve
C) County sheriffs selected the jurors
D) All of the above
E) Just B and C

Answer 3

Just B and C

Question 4

When a jury comes to a verdict based on their "conscience" and not solely on the evidence brought before them, this is known as

A) Illegal
B) Nullification
C) Contempt of court
D) None of the above.

Question 5

Some problems that emerge from the adversarial method of justice include

A) Sometimes the "truth" doesn't really emerge because both sides are focused on winning only
B) Encourages lawyers to use their special skills to get cases decided on the basis of technical and legal niceties rather than right or wrong
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A or B

Question 6

Today, in relation to evidence in a court case, jurors are

A) Are chosen because they have personal information about a case
B) Are instructed to base their decision on the evidence the judge admitted in the trial
C) Can deem evidence inadmissible if they don't understand its relevancy to the case at hand
D) Ordered to research material that is relevant to the evidence presented, both by watching media coverage on the case and reading books and articles that relate to the topic

Question 7

An advantage of the unanimity rule in a jury is

A) That the rule gives all members of the jury equal weight
B) It motivates members of the jury to listen to each individual member
C) Both A and B
D) None of these

Question 8

When analyzing the effects of jury size, research has shown that

A) The smaller the jury was, the greater the likelihood that one or more minority would be on the panel
B) Larger juries discussed trial material more accurately and fully than smaller juries
C) Smaller juries found defendants guilty more often than larger ones did
D) All of these

Question 9

The idea that impartiality is related to demographic representativeness is

A) A relatively new concept that came about in the twentieth century
B) An old concept that dates back to the middle ages
C) An idea that American colonists brought to the new world from King James' England
D) Foolish and bias and is a concept that has been erased from the American legal system.

Question 10

The peremptory challenge

A) Is a screening process used by judge to determine if any potential jurors may have a bias
B) Is a tool used by lawyers to attempt to select favorable juries by excluding some potential jurors who may be unfavorable to their side
C) Is a questionnaire issued by court officials to potential jurors to see if they meet legal qualifications
D) None of these

Question 11

When lawyers are given the opportunity to exclude certain jurors, should there be guidelines about raceand gender? Should lawyers have a limit on how many minority jurors they can exclude even if they have a substantial reason besides race to do so? Why or why not?

Question 12

Describe the development of the jury system and the right to trial by jury.

Question 13

Juries are not the only trier of fact. A case may be heard before a single judge with the judge deciding guilt or innocence. What advantage might there be to having a single judge hear the case? What advantage to having the jury hear the case?

Question 14

Explain the importance of the cases of William Penn and John Peter Zenger for jury trials.

Question 15

What effect does jury size have on jury deliberations and decisions?

Question 16

What practical and ethical problems may there be with the use of jury consultants?

Question 17

Summarize Vidmar's (1997) findings on medical malpractice cases.

Question 18

Trial by jury is a basic right and

A) a constraint on government power
B) participation as a juror is an important duty of citizenship
C) participation as a juror helps to see that justice is done in accordance with community values
D) all of the above

Question 19

In ancient times, trial by a jury of your peers meant that

A) a random selection of citizens of all social classes would serve as jurors
B) people of noble birth could only be tried by a jury of other nobles
C) you could be tried only by jurors from another community with no knowledge of the facts at issue
D) the defendant would be subject to a trial by ordeal

Question 20

After William Penn's case about religious freedom (Bushel's case),

A) judges could punish jurors if the jury brought in a "wrong" verdict
B) judges could no long punish jurors if they brought in a wrong verdict
C) jurors could only follow the judge's instructions and not find according to their own consciences
D) the oath for serving as a juror has little importance during jury deliberations

Question 21

Jury nullification refers to jurors

A) having to follow a judge's instructions about the law
B) having so many differences among themselves that the jury hangs
C) bringing in a verdict inconsistent with the law, but in keeping with their own sense of justice
D) requirement that they have to justify their verdicts in writing if they don't wish to follow the judge's instructions

Question 22

Defendants being tried by a jury for deliberately breaking a law they feel is unjust or immoral

A) are the last defendants who want juries to exercise the jury's power to nullify
B) appeal to nullification powers when they want to be judged by the morality of their acts, not the legality
C) want the judge to warn the jury to follow the law as the judge instructs the jury on it
D) want a trial behind closed doors so the public won't see how unfair and unjust the law is they broke

Question 23

Studies of transcripts of mock jury deliberations show that

A) jurors mostly argue with each other, and hardly talk about the evidence
B) jurors don't really try to ground their arguments for guilt or innocence in the evidence they heard at trial, but primarily talk about their "gut feelings"
C) jurors spend most of their deliberation time reviewing and weighing the evidence they heard at trial
D) if one juror misstates the evidence the others don't correct the person

Question 24

Research confirms that for mock jurors, the most important factor in their verdicts is

A) the personality and appearance of the witnesses
B) extra legal factors
C) story telling
D) a story anchored in the evidence

Question 25

In the adversary system, each side in a dispute

A) presents its own best case
B) can challenge the case made by the other side
C) in theory, truth emerges from the battle of divergent stories
D) all of the above

Question 26

The adversarial system

A) has its critics who say the adversarial method subjects witnesses to cruel and unusual punishment
B) even though putting the parties in "battle," may serve the important purpose of promoting social cohesiveness by giving each side it say
C) was found to be less satisfactory than the European inquisitorial system
D) was found to be flawed because so many appeals are allowed compared to the European inquisitorial system

Question 27

A hung jury is one that

A) brings in a death penalty
B) arrives at an incorrect verdict contrary to the evidence
C) cannot agree on a verdict after deliberating
D) happens in the majority of trials because people can't come to agreement

Question 28

The jury is a small group

A) that operates with some rules that guide is deliberations
B) that does its work best when it is completely unstructured
C) that makes its own law
D) that deals with evidence that is more prejudicial than probative

Question 29

On the theory that people retain and use information better when the participate actively some jurisdictions are experimenting with

A) letting jurors actively and directly cross-examine witnesses
B) letting jurors use and take notes on the testimony
C) providing jurors with glossaries of legal terms in notebooks
D) b and c but not a

Question 30

Lawyers and judges try to ensure that jurors will respond to the evidence introduced in court

A) by eliminating from serving on a particular jury someone who has developed strong opinions about the case from hearing or reading pretrial publicity
B) urge jurors selected for a trial to avoid newspaper or TV accounts of the trial
C) a) and b)
D) a) but not b)

Question 31

The evidence rule that says base your verdict only on evidence introduced into court

A) structures the work of the jury because it tells them what to discuss
B) makes it easy for lawyers to bend the rules by making objections in court
C) helps jurors to bring in all kinds of personal prejudices and irrelevancies to the deliberations
D) gives the judge absolute control over the jury's work

Question 32

Research reviewing changed rules for deliberation allowing jurors to find guilt with less than unanimous agreement showed that the rule change

A) has had little or no effect on deliberations
B) shortened deliberations, but also let juries bring in more guilty verdicts on the same evidence
C) shortened deliberation time, but when jurors looked at the same evidence, the rate of guilty verdicts was no different under the two rules
D) resulted in a greater number of hung juries,

Question 33

In real jury trials,

A) there are strict time limits on the length of time a jury can deliberate
B) the jurors vote about how long they will deliberate
C) jurors can challenge each other only during the first phase of deliberation
D) jurors tell the judge when they are hung and won't be able to deliver a verdict

Question 34

Jurors are instructed to discuss and debate during deliberations. The instruction

A) causes uncontrolled fighting and anger in the jury room
B) may increase the likelihood of conflict between jurors, but the rules for deliberation keeps the conflict in bounds most of the time
C) may require the judge to intervene when a juror is rendering a verdict according to conscience
D) moves the group of jurors toward conformity rather than toward acting as individuals

Question 35

Today the idea that an impartial jury is a representative jury means

A) the lists from which jurors are called to court should be reasonably representative of the nation as a whole
B) the lists from which jurors are called to court should be reasonably representative of the geographic area where the case arose
C) that each trial jury should be representative of the characteristics of the population as a whole
D) a jury of peers should match the defendant's race and social class

Question 36

In the voir dire, attorneys

A) can challenge a prospective juror for cause if it seems the juror can't render an impartial verdict based on the evidence in the trial
B) can challenge a prospective juror for cause if they suspect the juror might not be favorable to their side
C) can challenge a prospective juror for cause if they suspect the juror may be favorable to the other side
D) cannot use unlimited peremptory challenges to challenge a prospective juror for cause

Question 37

Scientific jury selection

A) is problematic because the correlations between individual difference measures and behavior in groups is low
B) is a well validated procedure that should be used more often
C) is a tool that best serves poor people and prosecutors
D) is a tool that is mostly used by wealthier people

Question 38

The two different outcomes in the O. J. Simpson criminal (not guilty) and civil (liable) trial demonstrates

A) that racial differences in jury composition made no difference in outcome
B) that different outcomes might have been a function of all the publicity
C) that the juries hearing somewhat different evidence and working with a different standard of proof could correctly have come to a different conclusion
D) that celebrity trials should take place in closed court to limit the bias introduced by pre-trial publicity

Question 39

Reports of large awards by juries in medical malpractice cases

A) Are exaggerated in newspaper accounts
B) Do not usually reflect that defendant doctors and hospitals win in court most of the time
C) Do not usually reflect that the ones with big awards are not the usual but the most egregious cases
D) All of the above

Question 40

Research on issues in malpractice suits

A) confirms that jurors are biased against doctors
B) show that mock jury awards in medical malpractice suits are no larger than in other negligence cases given the same injury
C) confirms that jurors soak rich doctors who have deep pockets
D) all of the above