Description

Trial by jury is one of the most important aspects of the U.S. legal system. A reflective look at how juries actually function brings out a number of ethical questions surrounding juror conduct and jury dynamics: Do citizens have a duty to serve as jurors? Might they seek exemptions? Is it acceptable for jurors to engage in after-hours research? Might a juror legitimately seek to 'nullify' the outcome to express disapproval of the law? Under what conditions might jurors make a valid choice to hold out against or capitulate to their fellow jurors? Is it acceptable to form alliances? After trial, are there problems with entering into publishing contracts? Unfortunately, questions such as these have received scant attention from scholars. This book revives attention to these and other issues of jury ethics by collecting new and insightful essays along with responses from leading scholars in the field of jury studies.

Author Info

John Kleinig is Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). His books include Discretion, Community, and Correctional Ethics, edited with Margaret Leland Smith (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), and From Social Justice to Criminal Justice, edited with William C. Heffernan (Oxford, 2000).

James P. Levine is Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and Professor of Government at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). He is the author of Juries and Politics (Pacific Grove, 1992).