In short, the jury system is to attract non-professional judges to participate in the trial in judicial trials, so as to achieve judicial justice and democracy. Democracy is the distance between the opinions of the judicial elite and the simple feelings of the people. During the jury, the jurors are required to conduct "free testimony" based on their own conscience. The premise is that everyone is rational, and that conscience is the ultimate measure of things that a person possesses. The so-called "intentional evidence" refers to the inner beliefs formed by the jurors through the examination of the evidence, and at the same time they are convinced of this belief. Through the jury system, the contradiction between legal professionalism and democracy has been alleviated to a certain extent. Especially in cases that may be judged as "urgent avoidance" or "justifiable defense", the emotions of the public often conflict with the professional thinking (empirical spirit) of judicial personnel.
The United States is a country that adopts the jury system, and it is also the most important supporter of the jury system in the world. Screening juries can be an industry from the movies. As one of the most distinctive parts of the judicial process in the United States, the jury's job is to find the facts of the case and determine whether the defendant is guilty or not based on the available evidence. The judge's duty is to strictly maintain the procedure of the lawsuit, determine which evidence can be used and which cannot be used, provide legal guidance to the jury, and finally apply the law in accordance with the law and the jury's determination. After clarifying the above concepts, you can understand the jury system in the United States by sorting out the plot.
The film begins when young Nick receives a court call letter. In the United States, any local citizen over the age of 21 has the opportunity to become a judge. A "primary" is chosen by the courts at random from a list of local voters. Subsequently, the court will review these people in the form of questionnaires, such as asking whether they have a criminal record, whether they are related to the parties, whether they are in good health, and so on. Depending on the probable length of the lawsuit and the impact of the case, the judge selects 20 people in general cases, while the LCC chooses 40 to 50 people in major cases. After the second election, the remaining people will go to the court to participate in the "court election". This is also the beginning of the suspense in the film.
In the "trial selection", not only the judge, but also lawyers from both sides of the defense will participate. The official jury is 12, but there are often several alternates, which is also reflected in the film. The judge will ask the candidates some personal and case-related questions. If the judge finds that the candidate is in poor health or has obvious prejudice against one party to the lawsuit, he will be disqualified, and the next candidate will fill up in turn. If there is a candidate If there is a shortage, the selection process will be restarted. There is no scene of the judge asking questions in the film, but the questioning of the lawyers of the prosecution and the defense started directly. In the film, we see the victim's attorney, Lore, asking relevant questions based on his experience in judicial practice to explore the candidate's emotional tendencies. That is to say, in the "trial selection" stage, both the prosecution and the defense have the opportunity to compete for jurors in their favor.
Both Lankin (a jury advisor to the Gun Group) and Lore used the right of "unreasonable avoidance" in the film to weed out jurors who were unfavorable to them. This right allows lawyers to exclude candidates they are not satisfied with for no reason, but only a limited number of times. Another right that lawyers enjoy is "reasonable recusal", that is, there is no limit to the number of times to exclude candidates based on certain legal grounds. Two rights constitute a lawyer's veto power. Blue Gold's method of selecting jurors was illegal from the beginning, because the law stipulates that the personal information of jurors should be kept secret. They live in isolated places, and all contact with the outside world is under the control of the bailiffs. Lanjin collected their information most completely, and the entire lawsuit had an out-of-control factor from the very beginning, that is, non-compliance with legal procedures. In the film, when the judge received a video of Nick's home being illegally searched, he angrily warned that the case would be "flown." If so, the jury will need to be reconstituted.
In the movie, Lan Jin once said to the arms dealers that trial is a very serious matter and cannot be handed over to a group of ignorant people. On the one hand, he emphasized the professionalism of the judiciary itself, as well as his distrust of judicial democracy. On the other hand, it also implies that the emotions of ordinary people are manipulated. Their judgments may not only be influenced by their own prejudices, but passion can also have the effect of clouding reason.
Therefore, lawyers will face the jury generously when defending, in order to win the sympathy of the jurors. Witnesses also face the jury when they testify. But jurors can't ask questions or even take notes, which makes them generally seem like passive listeners. After the trial investigation is over, jury members are taken to a secret deliberation room to vote on the case’s verdict, and in criminal cases, the jury is required to unanimously agree: in civil cases, only a simple majority is required.
No one can force someone to vote yes or no. So after a heated debate between Nick and the officer, everyone still cast the "holy" vote according to their own will. Lol wins, justice finally triumphs over evil. But while Nick told Blue King he wasn't really rigging the jury, the rest voted on their conscience. But his removal of Blue and Gold's favored coordinators has shown the intractable loopholes in the system. Victory can be bought if it's not for Nick Don't Get Revenge.
From "The Runaway Jury", we can at least discover the following phenomena:
the United States is a pluralistic society, the members of the jury can be of any color and any religious belief, and nominally, racial prejudice and religious prejudice are not allowed. "Unreasonable avoidance," but the fact that lawyers at least select jurors based on common characteristics of a certain ethnic group.
In a country that promotes human rights everywhere, the peeping on the privacy of citizens can reach an unbridled level. Although there are also exaggerations of Hollywood commercial genre films.
If jurors lack a sense of justice and social responsibility, their decisions will be absurd. In other words, if the jurors insist on their own justice - contrary to the mainstream, long-term inconsistencies within the jury are formed, then the case will fall into a marathon state, and the judicial cost will increase.
The last point is that Americans are widely divided on the issue of free gun ownership. The constitution gives the people the right to armed resistance against a possible dictator, but in fact the proliferation of guns has also caused many tragedies.
View more about Runaway Jury reviews
