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59 Judicature 478 (1975-1976)
Jury Confusion: A Threat to Justice

handle is hein.journals/judica59 and id is 480 raw text is: Jury confusion: A threat to justice by David U. Strawn and Raymond W. Buchanan Fifty per cent of Florida jurors studied thought it was up to the defendant to prove his innocence. Does the American trial jury know what it's doing? Does it actually understand the laws it is expected to apply? What if it doesn't know, and regularly produces re- sults which are unlawful? These concerns prompted a study now being conducted under our direction at Florida Technological University. In the past two decades, the capacities of science for reliably testing communication process- es have been enormously expanded. We think it is now possible to learn in detail the strengths and weaknesses of our jury system in order to assure its continued maturation. Countries with an Anglo-Saxon heritage have relied for centuries upon juries to law- fully resolve disputes between persons, and between persons and the state. The institu- 478 Judicature/Volume 59, Number 10/May, 1976 tion has been extremely important. The bar- ons of Runnymede even insisted on the inclusion of a jury trial provision in the Magna Carta over 760 years ago. Countries using juries have always made a number of assumptions about them. In our century, we continue to assume that a jury can be adequately informed of the law's requirements by oral instructions from a judge. Obviously, the jury needs to know the points of law in order to be able to determine whether the facts justify one verdict or an- other. Ideally, strict adherence to legal con- cepts prevents a trial jury from producing a capricious, unpredictable result. Uncompre- hending juries may resolve conflicts in many cases on uncertain bases. It is possible that many hung juries result from a lack of com-

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