This is the second installment of the series of Ontario Jury Duty Services. In part OneCITYNEWS Reporter Nick Westol provided an intensive reflection on his experience serving as a jurner, Those interviewed as part of this series had no direct knowledge or relationship for the experience mentioned in Part 1.
When it comes to doing jury duty, some minds can automatically be a way of thinking about the accused in any particular case or getting out of work, but Ontario court experts say that serving as a jurner has a very widespread effect.
Honorable Justice for judges like James Stribopolos Ontario Superior Court of Justice In Brampton, the concept of jury duty is what he is emotional and a responsibility that he said that he tries to tell the potential gamblers who appear in front of them for screening.
He said, “This is the country that is asking you to serve the country and serve your fellow citizens to serve the country, and this is an important role.”
“As Canadian people, our citizenship inspires us for a great deal, okay? We are the beneficiaries of this great country of ours … Jury service is not discretionary. It is your duty. It is your duty.
But for anyone who serves in a jury, Striybopolos accepted the difficulty that could not be appreciated by many who have not seen the justice system close.
He said, “Standing in the decision of other humans is a weighty responsibility. It is an important role, and we need community members to continue it to continue it.”
“I don’t think this is unusual for gamblers … is very impressed by what they have experienced. Sometimes it is a decision -making weight, knowing how it is beyond the court, the victim or the accused, the accused’s family, on the family of the accused or acquitted, I think we think.”
Role of jury and accused
As a professor Benjamin Burger with Osgode Hall Law School at York University, said, the recurrence of zrix in the English legal system returned as soon as possible as the 13th century.
“The jury was considered really important because the gamblers knew about the accused,” he said.
“So the jury was drawn, in its origin, from the community, which then knew the accused, to know the accused during the test or during the events that were inspired to test, and, the people involved knew, and of course, it could not be ahead of the truth of our system.”
Today, it is a necessity that the task of identifying facts as a jury falls to strangers. But regardless of, Berger said that a common thread is about protecting the accused.
“The government’s system is controlled by criminal law, control over the police, the state has great strength, and an idea that is a security against a bull backback or injustice that can be found for 12 common people for some accused, and in fact the jury of their peers means that the 12 non-government people, like the 12 non-government people who can actually say to the government, is that.
“An accused is likely to favor a jury, where they somehow feel that general knowledge argument, or the argument of a lying person, will not any one involved in the law, will take their favor, give a better approach that was for testing. So it is a kind of anti-state freedom.”
As an accused undergoes a testing process and if they are facing an allegation that may result in at least five years of prison time, they have the option to request a test by the Jury vs Judge-alone trial.
Under a test by the jury, all 12 gamblers must consult in their discovery after a period of personal consultation for an accused for convicting a criminal code of Canada’s offense. Two gamblers can be excuses during the process for emergency purposes. This incident cannot be unanimously discovered, a wrong way can be declared. The allegations may be dropped or the Crown may try to move forward with another test.
Asked about a potential strategy for a defendant to choose a test by the jury and if it can be done with expectation that the full jury would not agree, Berger said that there is a possibility of a factor in some cases.
“I don’t think it is a sly or mischief in any way. We have chosen a system where 12 people are tried.
“I think an accused who realizes that the case is enough, is complicated enough, that their crime is quite uncertain that they one, two, three, half, or even the entire jury may get that they should not be held responsible, it is all part of the calculation.”
How a jury can matter as a whole for victims and society
As a case makes its way through the court system, those who say that they have been suffering can be called to the court to testify.
This can be a rigorous process, where the crown will conduct the “examination-in-chief” of the witness, can conduct defense called “cross-execution”, and the crown can choose to do “re-examination” (another round of questions).
However, if a jury does not refund a discovery and a micriel is called, a witness can be remembered to make the same type of inquiries.
Despite all these possible tours of questions, Berger said that noting is something important.
“The victim is not a role of making such decisions in our criminal justice system, except very limited places, argument for better or worse,” he said.
Berger said that there is a factor that has the ability to emerge during some tests, and it is one that takes into account the widespread interests of the society.
Due to a 1989 Supreme Court case (R.V. Turpin), he said that a jury can be forced by Crown “through many different procedural procedural means” if the crime is considered quite serious.
“If you read the structure of our criminal process, the jury test is a lot of rights for the accused, but also the right of the society that our system is kept together, the prosecutor has a capacity for the society through the prosecutor, saying that the jury test is important here.”
Courts rely on injuries as the major part of the function: legal experts
When discussing tests related to injuries, Federal justice department It was highlighted that this is something that is protected through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. He noted that injuries are an important “public institutes”.
Officials wrote, “A large number of people are interested in the administration of a test justice by the jury and makes them responsible for it,” the authorities wrote.
“The jury acts as a vehicle of public education and lends the weight of community standards for testing the decision. The jury is also representative, in the sense that it works on behalf of society.”
To serve as a jurner in Ontario, a person must be at least 18 years old and a Canadian citizen. As Attorney General’s Ministry of OntarioThere are various discounts from jury duty service, including:
- If a disability or medical condition will affect the ability to serve as a jurner
- A “more severe criminal offense” (criminal code, convicted under the Cannabis Act, controlled drugs and substance Act or a crime was not forgiven or not listed in jury regulations)
- Somebody was legally employed as a qualified medical practice, Veterinary Surgeon, Coronor, Police Officer, Fire Fighter, Personnel of Jail or Corrective Institute, Penitantry Warden, Sheriff, Officer of Sheriff, Sheriff Officer, Advocate, Article, or LLP as a student, during the working period, Justice Officer, Judge, Judge, Justice of the Provisional Council, A. Canadian armed forces
- Involvement of judges, accused, witnesses or lawyers
- Need a needy
- Not to read or speak English
A person with health conditions may request to excuse jury duty or their jury duty can be re -determined. For someone who can experience “serious difficulty” if they demonstrate jury duty, or if serving in a jury is against a person’s religion and/or/or they do not live a proper distance from a court house, the authorities said that they would also be the basis for excuses or re -determined.
He said that the requests are considered on a personal basis and a judge can excuse the person, ask them to participate later, or assign them to serve them in a jury.
Stribopolos said that he regularly hears the reason why people are unable, but the most common include personal difficulty due to not working. Under the Ontario Act, someone cannot be removed to serve in a jury, but the employer does not need to pay them.
He said that he recognizes personal difficulties, but he can bring jury duty, but he hoped that people will take steps and try to serve.
“My experience is that the gamblers have taken their obligation very seriously, and the gamblers have discharged their role quite a very duty -bound, and I think it is difficult for the 12 common people who have never really decided before finding what the facts are in a given case,” Stribopolos said.
“Being something like a jury, it is a real bull for personal freedom, and it does not work, it is not possible, as long as general members of the community are not ready to catch their lives and fulfill this important civilian duty. This is nothing we can spend to take.”
Parts of this series will take close look at the call for three current jury systems and reforms