A Jury Protects People From the Mercy of an Individual. The US Justice System Works Only Because a Group of Real People Are Given Control Over a High & Mighty Judge.

The people of the United States are entitled to a jury trial if they are accused of a crime. A trial by jury guarantees that the person being accused of the crime would not be at the mercy of a single individual.

In the United States of America, a person is supposedly innocent until they are proven to be guilty. Unfortunately, over the course of time, that view point has been altered some.

In society today, there are many factors which result in the skewed views of a person's innocence. The media plays a big part in influencing the viewpoint of the public.

The media reports widely on crimes which are committed, but they unfortunately use names and use words like allegedly. The public tends to pass over the word allegedly and they instead hear that the person committed the crime.

Perhaps the media should report that a crime has been committed, but report no names until there has been a guilty verdict issued, this would result in a better chance of the person being innocent until proven guilty.

HISTORY

According to www.britannica.com, the history of a jury is not certain. It either originated in England, or was brought their by invaders and flourished there. Either way, the concept of today's American jury came to us from England.

The original juries were witnesses from the community. The individuals who witnessed the crime were to come up with a verdict based on their personal eye witness account of what happened.

According to the same website, a jury trial was pivotal in creating common law and was the accepted form of trial in England by the 15th century. The jury spread out of England by two methods. First, it spread with the expansion of the English kingdom. Secondly, after the French Revolution, it was brought to Europe as a symbol for the government.

MODERN

In America today, we are all entitled to face a jury if we are accused of committing a crime. The jury is supposed to be made up of our peers and the people on the jury are supposed to be impartial to the case being tried and to the defendant or prosecution.

Are we actually innocent until proven guilty, or has that premise changed in modern America to guilty until proven innocent. There are a variety of factors which seem to make the modern theory the latter one. First off, the media is extremely influential and you would be hard pressed to find a person who doesn't read a newspaper or watch the news. 

Secondly, and actually more detrimentally, the government has in the last eight years given themselves the right to imprison people simply for the idea that they may be involved in terrorism. If a person can be imprisoned indefinitely without proof, doesn't this take away from them being innocent?