In this article, a mother of two is on trial for the
murder of her two children. This extreme case requires a very levelheaded group
of jurors to prevent any immediate bias against the mother. The deeply
emotional tragedy, however, is too much to handle for many individuals. The
article goes on to explain the process in which attorneys had to undergo in
order to find enough jury members to take on this trial. Some candidates broke down in tears at hearing the news, while others had past traumatic events in their lives that would have immediately swayed the decision. Due to these factors, a large portion of the initial 90 candidates were immediately taken out of the selection pool due
to past life events, or obvious emotional bias.
To me, the idea that a group of randomly selected jurors can
take on such extreme cases is a bit odd. Though, group decision-making can be
more rational than that of an individual, having only 12 members does not seem
enough. No matter how careful the
prosecutors are in the selection of the jurors, there will always be a bias in
the decision-making. This is especially risky in a case so controversial
because any vote can sway the outcome.
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