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This document includes a set of recommendations for changes in jury selection, treatment, education, and trial practice in California.
Trial by jury is an integral part of our criminal justice system and one that is well respected by citizens. However, in some parts of the nation less than half of the people summoned to jury duty respond to the summons. In response to this problem, the Judicial Council of California created a Blue Ribbon Commission tasked with creating recommendations for jury system improvements. Since the Blue Ribbon Commissions final report in 1996 and the creation of a Task Force on Jury System Improvements, several jury innovations have been implemented throughout California. While many of these innovations have been qualitatively analyzed, there has been little to no effort to perform a quantitative analysis to determine whether any of these innovations have had an effect on juror response rates. This study used an OLS regression model to quantify the effects of jury innovations on juror response rates in Yolo County using 110 observations between October of 2001 and November of 2010. Several innovations had statistically significant effects on the juror response rates, including the use of plain English jury instructions for both civil and criminal jury trials, the use of a standardized jury summons form, allowing juror note taking, allowing jurors to ask questions at trial, giving jury instructions prior to trial, changing the method of jury payment, changes to the juror orientation, changes to the way jurors were managed, and playing a pre-recorded greeting from the presiding judge to prospective jurors. Some of the innovations, specifically the plain English instructions for civil jury trials, modifications to the management of jurors, and the pre-recorded introduction by the presiding judge appear to have a inverse relation to juror response rates. Given the limited number of data points as well as the limited geographic scope of the study, these results should be interpreted cautiously. However, this study is a proof of concept in that the effectiveness of jury innovations can be analyzed in a quantitative manner; a similar study with a wider scope and larger dataset, could yield more conclusive results.
In Criminal Procedures: Prosecution and Adjudication: Cases, Statutes, and Executive Materials, Sixth Edition, the highly respected author team presents a student-friendly, comprehensive survey of the laws and practices at work between the time a person is charged and the moment when the courts hear an appeal after the offender’s conviction and sentence. In the Sixth Edition, the authors retain the vitality and contemporary approach of the book with an updated selection of cases, statutes, and office policies. Covering in detail the “bail-to-jail” portions of the criminal process, this casebook features: Extensive use of documents from multiple institutions including U.S. Supreme Court cases, state high court cases, state and federal statutes, rules of procedure, and prosecutorial policies A real world perspective that focuses on high-volume issues of current importance to defendants, lawyers, courts, legislators, and the public instead of intricate but rarely-encountered questions Interdisciplinary examination of the impact that different procedures have on the enforcers, lawyers, courts, communities, defendants, and victims Points of comparison between U.S. practices and the systems at work in other countries Frequent use of Problems to give the instructor options for applying concepts and doctrines in realistic practice settings. New to the Sixth Edition: Two new authors join the editorial team: Jenia I. Turner of SMU Dedman School of Law and Kay L. Levine of Emory University School of Law: With her doctoral training in Socio-Legal Studies and her balanced experience as a prosecutor and a defense attorney in state court, Professor Levine sharpens the focus of the book on the real-world operation of courtroom actors in high-volume state systems. With her background in international criminal tribunals and comparative criminal procedure, Professor Turner strengthens the comparisons between court systems in the U.S. and those around the world. As experienced and celebrated classroom teachers, both Professors Turner and Levine bring closer attention to student learning needs in every chapter of the book. A revamped Chapter 2 surveys the major changes in the use of money bail and risk assessment algorithms, previewing the prospects for further system reforms. Chapter 3 covers newsworthy recent changes in the charging policies and diversion practices of prosecutors’ offices, especially those in urban areas such as Philadelphia. Chapter 7 expands its coverage of the tensions between fair trials and public trials, including new materials on public access to court files and statistics. A refocused Chapter 9 provides a more detailed and vivid portrait of sentencing hearings and the use of risk assessment instruments. Professors and students will benefit from: Materials that support class discussion, including criminal justice actors beyond the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: the vision is “street level federalism” Materials that give students a nuanced portrait of current practices in criminal justice rather than a rushed historical narrative about doctrinal trends A supporting website that offers exemplar documents, recent news with relevance for criminal procedure, and brief video lectures to introduce each major unit Intuitive organization—tracking the typical order of events in criminal court—that makes it easy to see connections among different areas of the law
In a passionate warning that is not only well-reasoned, as becomes a renowned former trial lawyer and present federal judge, but is also a compelling and entertaining read, William L. Dwyer defies those who would abolish our jury system and hand over its power to judges or to panels of "experts." He aims, by making his readers aware of what should be done, to help us save what he calls "America's most democratic institution." In an overview of litigation's universe, Dwyer goes back several centuries to describe the often terrifying ways our ancestors arrived at verdicts of guilt or innocence. Tracing the evolution of our present-day system, he gives us excerpts from the actual records of such trials as that of young William Penn, arrested for preaching Quaker beliefs in public; the Salem witch trials; and the landmark civil rights trial of 18th century newspaper publisher John Peter Zenger, whose attorney was the original "Philadelphia lawyer." Along with these famous courtroom episodes are many never before described in print, all of them infused with the drama that gives life to the law. Dwyer's language is clear and engaging - a pleasant surprise for readers apprehensive about legal gobbledygook. He has a store of courtroom "war stories," some inspiring, some alarming, many enlivened by gleams of the author's wry humor. Underlying that humor, however, is the judge's fear that the jury system is endangered by neglect and misunderstanding, and could be lost without the public being aware of what is happening. The book shows that despite much adverse publicity, the American jury still works capably, at times brilliantly, when given a fair chance by the legal professionals who run trials. Consequently, the author deals with what has gone wrong with American litigation, the controversy over the jury's competence and integrity, and trial and pretrial reforms that must be made to save trial by jury and reshape American litigation in the twenty-first century.