The Supreme Court against the Criminal Jury

Zusatztext

<span><span>The Supreme Court against the Criminal Jury: Social Science and the Palladium of Liberty</span><span> is an analysis of the United States Supreme Court decisions in what has come to be called the jury-size and jury-decision rule cases. In</span><span>Williams v. Florida</span><span> (1970) and</span><span>Ballew v. Georgia</span><span> (1978), a majority of the Supreme Court looked to history, empirical studies, and functional analysis to support its claim that there was no discernible difference between the verdicts of juries of six and juries of twelve. In the process the Court also decided that the number twelve was an historical accident and that the twelve-member jury was not an essential ingredient of trial by jury.<br><br>Two years later, the Court, following essentially the same line of reasoning used in</span><span>Williams,</span><span> decided in the companion cases</span><span>Apodaca v. Oregon</span><span> (1972) and</span><span>Johnson v. Louisiana</span><span> (1972) that defendants were as well served with juries that reached verdicts by a majority vote of 11-1,10-2 and 9-3 as they were with unanimous jury verdicts. In these cases the Supreme Court rejected the centuries old common law view that the unanimous jury verdict was an essential element of trial by jury. With these four decisions, the criminal jury as it had been known for more than six hundred years under the common law and the Constitution was in principle abandoned. We critique these decisions from the perspective of unreliable jury studies and the impact of these decision on jury nullification.</span></span>

Autorenportrait

<span><span>John A. Murley</span><span> is emeritus professor and former chair of the Department of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology.</span></span><br><span></span><br><span><span>Sean D. Sutton</span><span> is chair of the Department of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology.</span></span>

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