re: Should We Have Professional Jurors?

yes

Yes a govt job with a basic wage and no chance for promotion would be taken over by your current government workers - not the people I want on a jury if I’m innocent

quote:

---

People who know the law, are impartial.

---

I hear that Sasquatch knows the law and is impartial, probably just as easy to find, though always a little blurry.

quote:

---

People who know the law, are impartial.

If you could remove potential corruption, absolutely.

---

If we could ensure this, we wouldn't need juries, we could just rely on bench trials.

This board gets more Hobbesian by the day.

No. Just make state jury duty similar to federal jury duty. Almost nobody gets off.

quote:

---

People who know the law, are impartial.

---

This was said as a joke, right?

The sci-fi author Heinlein had a partial solution.

quote:

---

No, not at all. No stake in the game, just what is written, per statute. No emotions, just written law. Why would you think I am joking? Today's juries are emotional and stupid. Why not have someone who is actually educated, regarding the law?

---

You've never actually interacted with any attorneys in your entire life have you?

You truly think lawyers are impartial? Seriously?

I mean have you not paid attention to anything since Trump took office in terms of the left judge shopping and Boasberg tossing injunctions left and right only to have damn near all of them overturned on appeal because they're blatantly partisan decisions?

And you think that won't happen like a motherfricker if juries were all professional lawyers?

I mean just get rid of juries at that point and let judges decide everything since they're "impartial" right?

God damn. Are people incapable of second and third order thinking anymore?

Why not send potential jurors options for the week(s) they serve? That way you’d have far fewer people with scheduling issues.

I once got called and was going to be out of the country when they wanted me to report. I’d gladly have served if I’d been allowed to defer even just a week or a month. Instead my only option was to ask to be let out.

There is something magical about number 12-person jury. Twelve!

My experience on juries finds 12 people to mitigate “intelligence” risk you cite and fair / no one sized fits all mindedness (“malleable”). Amazed that 12 people hearing same exact sets of evidence and can settle a fair outcome most of the time.

I think the desire to get back to their lives (vs professionals) is good incentive as is weight of person’s fate, that a professional juror would normalize / habituate, makes current jury selection process relatively effective.