Jury duty

Ø 1) Answer the questions:

a) Would you like to be a lawyer? Would you like to be a judge?

b) Have you ever been in court? What did you do there?

c) Have you ever been a member of a jury? Was it difficult?

Jerry Owens is a member of a jury. Now he is hearing a case that involves robbery and theft.

The accused man, the defendant, has a past criminal record and has served a term in prison. He is accused of holding up a bank as well as stealing jewelry from five homes in the area. The trial has lasted five days, but today seems to be the day to give a verdict of guilty or no guilty.

Jerry thinks that the evidence against the defendant is not very strong. He plans to vote “not guilty.”

Ø 2) Answer the questions:

a) Who is Jerry Owens?

b) Who has a past criminal record?

c) Why is today important?

d) What is the defendant accused of?

e) How does Jerry Owens plan to vote?

Trial by jury

Ø 1) What title might be good for this selection?

Ø 2) Could you comment on the phrase “Trial by jury may not be a perfect system of administering criminal justice”?

Trial by jury may not be a perfect system of administering criminal justice, but it is a great im­provement over some earlier methods. In old England, under Saxon rule, cruel and barbaric methods were used to determine the guilt or in­nocence of the accused. These procedures were known as “ordeal by fire” and “ordeal by water.” Fire was customarily used for nobility. Ordinary people were tried by water.

In one variety of “ordeal by fire, ” the accused was forced to take three steps while grasping a red hot piece of iron in his or her bare hands. The hands were then bandaged and the defendant was judged on the degree of healing that took place in three days. A variation on this technique involved walking barefoot and blindfolded on ir­regularly spaced red-hot irons. God supposedly guided the feet of the innocent.

For “ordeal by water” the accused was bound with ropes and tossed into a deep body of water. Those who floated were guilty. A person who sank was presumed innocent and, hopefully, pulled from the water before drowning. This quaint practice was based on the notion that the water would reject the guilty and accept the in­nocent.

Our judicial system may have flaws, but it’s cer­tainly preferable to the Saxon system!

Ø 3) Answer the questions:

a) What is “ordeal by fire”?

b) Who were the Saxons?

c) What layer of the population was fire used for?

d) What does the word “barbaric” mean?

e) What does the word “flaws” mean?