Old Zhou
Abstract: On April 15, former U.S. President Donald Trump's "hush money" case opened in the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York. But two days later, even the 12-member jury has not been decided. What is a jury, and why do both sides care so much about the members of the jury that they don't give an inch?
On April 15, former U.S. President Donald Trump's hush money case opened in the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York. But two days later, even the 12-member jury has not been decided. What is a jury, and why do both sides care so much about the members of the jury that they don't give an inch?
Let's start with a brief account of Trump's "hush money" case, according to prosecutors, during the 2016 election, Trump used his personal lawyer Cohen to ask star Daniels to silence the story between the two during the election. In 2017, Daniels told the Washington Post
The disclosure of this matter, after media reports, immediately caused an uproar. The FBI searched Cohen's office, found some evidence, and then arrested Cohen, who eventually turned into a tainted witness to help prosecutors accuse Trump of paying "hush money" to Daniels from his legal fees. In the United States, "hush money" is legal, but Trump's "hush money" is paid from the lawyer's fee, which is suspected of falsifying business records, that is, making false accounts in popular terms. As a result, the prosecution has filed a total of 34 counts, each of which carries a sentence of more than four years in prison, which means that if convicted of all counts, Trump could face 130 years in prison.
Since this is the first time in U.S. history that a former president has been criminally charged, the case has been dubbed the "World Trial." In addition, this year is another election year, and Trump, as the Republican Party's presidential candidate, is even more relevant to this criminal prosecution, so it has attracted much attention.
After the trial began on April 15, the prosecution and defense disagreed over the jury, and it took two days to determine seven jurors.
So, what exactly is a jury in the United States?
The jury system is a very distinctive system in the American judicial system, which simply means that a specific number of citizens with the right to vote participate in determining whether a suspect is prosecuted or guilty.
There are three types of juries in the United States, the first is a criminal grand jury, the second is a criminal petit jury, and the third is a civil jury.
The grand jury is generally 23 members whose main role is to decide whether to prosecute, and to hear a number of cases and decide whether to prosecute during the term of office (usually 4 weeks), while the petit jury is usually composed of 12 people (only 6 people are required for misdemeanor or civil compensation cases), and one team per case is disbanded at the end of the case. The petit jury's primary duty is to attend court trials and decide whether a defendant is guilty or not. A civil jury decides whether the defendant should pay compensation in a civil lawsuit.
This time Trump's "hush money" case is a criminal petit jury.
In criminal proceedings, the jury decides whether a suspect is guilty or not, and it must be the unanimous opinion of the 12 jury members. If there is a disagreement, it is necessary to communicate and discuss it adequately. If there is no agreement, the case will have to be retried – and Trump would most like to do so, because it will be after the November election, and the lawsuit will have little impact on the election.
In short, it is the right of the jury to decide whether to sentence guilty or five years only after the jury has made a guilty verdict.
Jurors must be citizens of the age of 18 and have the right to vote, and are chosen at random from among the voters in the area where the court is located. If selected and unwilling to serve on a jury, they will be disqualified from voting and will be fined for contempt of court. Because, jury service is also an important manifestation of civil rights.
There is only one development for jurors, and that is that they cannot be legal professionals. Many people will find this strange, isn't it better to have legal expertise instead of holding court hearings? However, Americans believe that there are judges, prosecutors, and lawyers in the courtroom, and jurors do not need legal expertise, because if they have legal expertise, the relevant cases and legal provisions will produce thinking constraints, but it is better not to have these rules and regulations, and to make judgments entirely on the cognition and conscience of the jurors.
The jury must be agreed upon by the lawyers of both parties, and in addition to the fact that the jurors cannot be directly related to the parties, the lawyers can also consider that the judgment may be unfavorable to the parties based on the background information of the jurors, so it is stipulated that each party's lawyers have the right to veto three times, and if the three vetoes are exhausted and the candidates have not been determined, the judge will decide.
This time, there were a total of 98 juror candidates, and each of them had to complete a questionnaire of up to 42 questions, including education, marital status, hobbies, etc., which was also unprecedented in the history of the United States.
Because of the nest of the Democratic Party in New York City, it is a veritable deep blue zone. More than 80 percent of voters are Democratic supporters. By that rate, at least 10 of the 12 jury members are Democratic supporters and would have ruled against Trump. Therefore, Trump's lawyers must ensure that at least two jurors are sympathetic to Trump in order to avoid reaching a unanimous verdict that Trump is guilty.
It is for this reason that the jury selection has become the focus of controversy. It took two full days for the seven juries to be decided.
It should be said that the evidence in Trump's "hush money" case this time is not very conclusive, the "hush money" was transferred by Cohen, not by Trump, and there is no conclusive evidence to prove that it was also Lamp who asked Cohen to transfer the money, and there is no Trump signature on the non-disclosure agreement with Daniels. Therefore, it is very likely that the 12-member jury did not reach a consensus in this case and remanded for a new trial.
(The picture in this article comes from the Internet)
Lao Zhou, whose real name is Zhou Ming, once used the screen name Guangting, has been engaged in the study of military war history for a long time, and has served as a guest on military columns on Phoenix Satellite TV and Shanghai TV many times. He has published more than 20 military books, which can be consulted and purchased on the micro-store "Zhibingtang Bookstore" and a treasure online store "Zhibingtang Bookstore". Now there is a personal column "Lao Zhou Military" on Himalaya, which produces military audio programs. The "Old Zhou New Observation" video account has been set up on major video platforms to interpret military hot spots, please support.