Based on the article "This Is Why Juries Shouldn't Decide Court Cases" by Erin Fuchs, should the jury system be eliminated from the American Criminal Justice System? Thoroughly explain your answer, and provide evidence from "The Jury Problem" paragraph.

When the epic Oscar Pistorius murder trial finally comes to an end, a judge and two court officials will decide his fate — not a jury. That’s because South Africa banned juries in 1969.

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This Is Why Juries Shouldn't Decide Court Cases

Erin Fuchs Jul 3, 2014, 1:36 PM

12 Angry Men

A scene from the iconic jury movie "12 Angry Men." IMDB

When the epic Oscar Pistorius murder trial finally comes to an end, a judge and two court officials will decide his fate — not a jury. That’s because South Africa banned juries in 1969.

South Africa ditched juries amid fears of racial prejudice among jurors and a reluctance on the part of many people to serve. We should do the same thing in the United States.

Jurors with zero legal training in the U.S. often have to decide cases involving mind-bending issues like patent law. Many intelligent people who could best understand those issues, like our executive editor Gus Lubin, try to duck jury duty because they don’t want to miss work.

As a result, juries may consist of people who are least equipped to understand the issues before them. Even if a jury does have intelligent people serving on it, those people are most likely not legal experts.

Explanation:

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HOME LAW

This Is Why Juries Shouldn't Decide Court Cases

Erin Fuchs Jul 3, 2014, 1:36 PM

12 Angry Men

A scene from the iconic jury movie "12 Angry Men." IMDB

When the epic Oscar Pistorius murder trial finally comes to an end, a judge and two court officials will decide his fate — not a jury. That’s because South Africa banned juries in 1969.

South Africa ditched juries amid fears of racial prejudice among jurors and a reluctance on the part of many people to serve. We should do the same thing in the United States.

Jurors with zero legal training in the U.S. often have to decide cases involving mind-bending issues like patent law. Many intelligent people who could best understand those issues, like our executive editor Gus Lubin, try to duck jury duty because they don’t want to miss work.

As a result, juries may consist of people who are least equipped to understand the issues before them. Even if a jury does have intelligent people serving on it, those people are most likely not legal experts.

The law professor Peter Van Koppen explained why this is problematic in a 2009 essay arguing that jurors often have to decide "technical issues beyond their aptitude." In that essay published in the e-journal "Anatomy of a Jury Trial," Van Koppen pointed out that you wouldn't want a panel of lay people acting as doctors. So, why would you want regular people deciding the fate of defendants? The work done by a jury isn’t that different from the work of a scientist like a doctor, he wrote.

honestly, school in itself just seems to be a huge waste of time. a lot of people graduate but still end up not doing anything in college anyways, which really makes the whole point of graduating seem useless. i'd rather not bring anyone's hopes up then. what i'd recommend is for whoever's reading this to simply drop out.

i mean, kanye did it. he said something along the lines of, "don't let society tell you what to do." now, he's obviously a very successful person, and since his album is called the college dropout i guess he never really had to go through all that nonsense in order to become a millionaire. the same goes for anyone else then.

alright no problem, cool