ABSTRACT
The jury system is the product of historical evolution, given that the lives of the defendant and others will be profoundly affected by its verdict, but history and tradition are poor justifications for its continued use. This chapter aims to compare judge and jury decision-making along a number of parameters - overall general competency; susceptibility to prejudice and corruption; the ability to determine facts accurately; and the likelihood of reaching the right result in the individual case. Critics of the jury seem divided only as to whether to attribute its failings to incompetence or malevolence. Several strains of jury criticism can be distinguished, there are attacks on jury verdicts for perversity and on the jurors who returned those verdicts for incompetence. There is the charge that jurors indulge their biases and return discriminatory verdicts. There are also claims that juries are responsible for miscarriages of justice.
