Does The Internet Generation Make For Bad Jurors?
from the moving-ahead-with-times dept
The Lord Chief Justice in the UK has suggested that the internet generation aren't very good on juries because they're more used to reading information on a screen, rather than listening. That's a bit misleading. Just because people are used to reading lots of information or consuming it off of a screen, it doesn't preclude their ability to listen live. However, the suggestions to potentially upgrade the tools for jurors, such as by providing them screens with info, does make some sense. It could make it much easier to present a lot of information to a jury in a more manageable fashion, rather than requiring them to just listen. But, even so, it does seem a bit extreme to suggest that younger jurors are simply unable to listen in the jury box and follow the details of a trial.
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Perhaps the judge is boring?
Of course, if the "I'm going to vote for Palin coz she's pretty" generation is in the jury all bets are off.
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Re: Perhaps the judge is boring?
Here in my city the black voter turn out was the highest it has even been. I bet they were all voting for Congressman Barr of the Libertarian Party.
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Re: Perhaps the judge is boring?
Back on topic, perhaps it really represents a shift in the learning style of younger generations; because they are so used to having information presented visually, they are better able to retain that than information presented aurally. I know I've always been that way, and I was raised on computers - but I'm not ruling out the possibility that I'm just weird, of course. ^_^
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Downward Spiral
They just don't care.
Apathy is setting in.
If it's a murder trial or a shoplifting trial; somebody else's problem, why should anybody be concerned with it or them?
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if the internet generation makes (i think it requires an "S" here) for bad jurors then the Justice system is becoming or has become outdated.
i see you already came up with potential solution for that.
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subject is singular even though it represents several people so it should be "the internet generation isn't very good on juries"
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They are Grammar Nazis.
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"The internet generation does make for a bad jury."
"The internet generation makes for a bad jury."
They are different parts of speech. They're correct in both cases though.
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Hi:
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as far as i know Mike appreciates the corrections unless its in a condescending manner.
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why do you care??
different countries have different values. please do not apply your narrow minded views on "foreign" (or, should I say alien?) matters.
STFU
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Re: why do you care??
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Might Be True
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Outdated
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Schools?
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And why are they complaining again? First they complain that there are not enough jurors, then that the intellect of the average leaves a lot to be desired (a intelligent person apparently knows how to avoid jury duty), and now this!
Yes, there are fundamental flaws in the system - for a start we are still using the same language in courts we used 200 years ago. What modern person can keep up with that? This court system is all stuffy, formal, and cloaked in traditions that predate even the laws that are long outdated yet still enforced today.
How about we cut the crab and tell it like it is - the whole system sucks and no person with any integrity wants to be part of it. Time to throw the wigs away, stop the old-boys-club justice system that is failing the country and dish out some real sentences (instead of going after trivial and nonsensical cases)
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More likely that jury rigging has more to do with it.
Each bench can remove potential jurors, I dont remember how many.
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Juror innocence or legalese
I'll bet it's a case of jurors can't understand legalese. So what? The whole point of a jury is to protect everyone from legalese.
If a lawyer can't boil things down to something a layman can understand, either the underlying law is a bad one, or they have a poor case against the defendant to begin with.
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Boredom
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Jury Nullification
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Love the bogus test on bbc.co.uk
We learn by listening, reading, observing and application so it stands to reason that a person would do better on the second test after listening to the audio and reading the transcript, insuring the result they are looking for. Our British cousins certainly seem to have a lot of time for nonsense.
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Attention Spa...WTF!!
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Skill sets have changed
We now gather a lot more of our information visually, so that has crowded the listening and remembering portion. It's not a matter of being lazy or stupid, it's a matter of being wired differently in response to different stimuli.
This is actually better because the visual pathways have a lot greater bandwidth than the auural pathways, so there's more capacity to absorb information by reading than by listening.
Unfortunately, the legal system still treats jurors as though they are illetrate peasants who have to have everything read to them. It's not only a waste of time, it's counter-productive.
Of course, most lawyers WANT illiterate peasants because they're easier to snow.
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Subjunctive
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i find reading to be easier
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Juror quality
I'll go with the idea that learning focus and ability has changed : that conversational skillsets are comparatively underdeveloped.
Then too...are the jurors ignorant of the facts of the case and/or of the state's agenda ?
Any media hog is going to miss his 'fix' too.
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The CSI generation
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The trial lasted three days, and we heard extensive testimony from four individuals.
As I recall, the "jury information pack" contained a collection of photographs. I maybe misremembering that, and it's entirely possible the photos (presented as evidence at the trial) didn't actually make it out into the jury deliberation chambers and we actually didn't have anything with us from the coutroom apart from our own notes.
Now, in this trial, the guy was guilty as all hell, the lack of evidence was a key point in the prosecution's case, and the defense lawyer so comedically incompetent that several people remarked that they suspected we were actually involved in a "reality TV" production, so it's possible that there wasn't a huge amount of extra documentation that would have helped. But they could at least have included a transcript of the various testimonies.
In answer to LBD's reply 30, there's no jury pool selection in the UK. 200 or so people wait as the main, general jury pool for two weeks of jury service (not sure of the time. There was a massive screw-up on the jury pool records during my time). When a trial starts, 15 people go into a waiting chamber otside the courtroom, they all walk into court, 12 of them get selected at random. The 12 stay, and the other 3 head off back to jury pool.
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Internet Generation
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Jeez
Seems like the judge is yet another old fogey complaining how in his day he went uphill in the snow both ways with no shoes, carrying 20 lbs. of books and his brother on his back, all with a smile on his face and a tune on his lips.
You would think people would be glad that reading as a way of obtaining information is continuing to be used. The fact remains that some people take in information in different ways: visually, textually and aurally and that none of these methods are better or worse than others, just more appropriate on some occasions than others.
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Internet Generation Cheap Treadmill
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Fluffy, sweet and impossible not to love!
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newest jordan shoes
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