LESSON NUMBER THREE:
THE UNITED STATES TRIAL BY JURY

The following lesson is part of a publication from the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

Croddy, Marshall, Todd Clark, Ten Engler, and Bill Hayes. Criminal Justice in America. Constitutional Rights Foundation, Second Edition. Los Angeles, 1998. (pp. 94-95, 104-105, 129-130)

  1. Students should read details of the "Police Crime Investigation Report" about a four year old being hit in the head and chest by a shotgun blast at a range of about 10 yards. The victim died instantly.

  2. Students should read details of "Class Activity: We, the Jury."

  3. Divide students into groups of five. Assign students one biography to summarize for other students.

  4. Students share summaries verbally to other members of their respective juries.

  5. Provide each member of the juries with definitions of Second-Degree Murder, Voluntary Manslaughter, and Involuntary Manslaughter.

  6. Ask each jury to deliberate until they reach a unanimous decision as to whether the accused in the case is guilty of Second-Degree Murder, Voluntary Manslaughter, and Involuntary Manslaughter.

  7. Following the simulation students should write a short, informal essay on the following question: Is the Unit Trial System an improvement over the Trial by Ordeal and the Greek Democratic Trial?

  8. Class discussion should be centered around the topic under consideration. The instructor might make a list of the following categories on the chalkboard or overhead projector to organize topics of discussion:

    ORDER JUSTICE IMPROVEMENT PROBLEMS

  9. Homework. Students should read pp. 29-30 from Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Democracy on Trial. New York: Basic Books, 1995. In addition, students should read p. 55 from Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.