Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Civics Assignment- Jurors' Duties

The role of a juror consists of reading evidence, listening to a case, using good judgment in cases with witnesses, and detemining if the plantiff provided enough information to deem a defendent, guilty or not guilty. They must discuss the case and evidence with the other jurors and come to a unanimous verdict. In the United States there are many types of courts that split into sub-categories between state and federal. State courts split into 3 courts: Trial, Intermediate Appellate, and The Highest State Court. Trial further splits into general which can oversee cases of civil or criminal and limited which oversees cases such as probate, family, traffic, juvenile, smal claims, and municipal cases. The Intermediate Appellate determines if the trial cases follwed the laws set in each state. The Highest State Court is the final revenue for appeals.

Federal courts are split into 9 separate types of courts, 94 districts, and 12 regional circuit courts. Federal oversees court cases dealing with diversity of citizenship and Federal questions which are cases between states, cases that include high ranking public figures, bankruptcy and many other types of cases.

In the US, there are three different types of juries; criminal grand juries, criminal petit juries, and civil grand juries. A criminal grand jury is used in replacement of a preliminary hearing for the prosecution. They decide for 15 dollars a day and gas mileage and determine if a person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Civil Grand Juries are responsible for investigating complaints in the county and act as a "civil watchdog" for the county and auditing records and books kept by county offices. Petit juries, also called trial juries, are present in civil and criminal cases represented by the local courts.

No comments:

Post a Comment