'Juries are anti-democratic, irrational and haphazard.' To what extent do you think that this is an accurate description of the selection and role of the jury?

The first 200 words of this essay...

'Juries are anti-democratic, irrational and haphazard.' To what extent do you think that this is an accurate description of the selection and role of the jury?

A jury is a group of men and women legally chosen to hear a case and to decide the facts from the evidence presented. Juries are used in civil and criminal cases. Trial by jury is not common in civil cases is not common and is usually restricted to actions involving defamation, malicious prosecution, fraud and false imprisonment. Any part to one of these actions has the right to trial by the jury. A jury will be ordered for other cases when the court considers it necessary, which it rarely does. A county court jury consists of eight jurors and a High Court jury has 12.In criminal cases juries, juries of 12 persons are used in all trials in the Crown Court.

The jury is selected at random from the electoral register to provide a cross-section of the population. There is further selection at the court itself using cards to choose 12 jurors at random from a pool of possible jury members. Before a citizen can be selected as a member