4 ms·

In my country you can usually appeal a decision and a new judge takes that case. Mind you a judge is probably smarter and less "fallible" than the average guy/g

by Yeul 3y ago

In my country you can usually appeal a decision and a new judge takes that case. Mind you a judge is probably smarter and less "fallible" than the average guy/gal on the street. We don't drag someone off the street at random for most jobs now do we?

johannes1234321 3y ago
A judge is (hopefully) trained and experienced with questioning both sides of the argument and weighing the arguments. While jurors just have their natural intuition. Here in Germany we have a system were "volunteer" judges are elected from the general public. On lower levels there then are two volunteer and one regular judge*, where the regular judge is leading the trial, but volunteers got same right to ask question and votes are equal, thus the two volunteers could overrule the regular judge, (both for deciding whether guilty or not and the punishment) while in most cases they probably follow the suggestion of the regular judge. If the verdict is challenged upper courts only have regular judges. Goal is to have, both the legal expertise, but also the "common sense" in the ruling. * in some cases the numbers may be different, there are sometimes 3 regular and two volunteer or something in between
- gambiting 3y ago
  Same(or very similar) in the UK - you have lower level "magistrates court" where the judges are volunteers who are given legal training and are given access to actual paid career judges if they need clarification on something. I'm not sure if the magistrates can overrule regular judges in any way, but yeah, you can always appeal to a higher court if needed.
dpflug 3y ago
I've worked with judges. I could give you a mapping of charges to local judges where I'd prefer the judgement of 12 random people off the street. This isn't a normal job. We don't hire 6 to 23 people for a single job, and jurors aren't random. Yes, jury summons are sent randomly, but they'll have hundreds summoned and then jury selection starts. It's not unlike a job interview. If someone is on the jury who's going to be biased or unreasonable, that's a failure of their legal counsel.
- Yeul 3y ago
  Trust me if I was a defendant I'd prefer a jury system too because I know that people can be skillfully manipulated. But such a trial has nothing to do with justice. It relies on the dark arts of psychiatry.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

by Yeul 3y ago

johannes1234321 3y ago

A judge is (hopefully) trained and experienced with questioning both sides of the argument and weighing the arguments. While jurors just have their natural intuition. Here in Germany we have a system were "volunteer" judges are elected from the general public. On lower levels there then are two volunteer and one regular judge*, where the regular judge is leading the trial, but volunteers got same right to ask question and votes are equal, thus the two volunteers could overrule the regular judge, (both for deciding whether guilty or not and the punishment) while in most cases they probably follow the suggestion of the regular judge. If the verdict is challenged upper courts only have regular judges. Goal is to have, both the legal expertise, but also the "common sense" in the ruling. * in some cases the numbers may be different, there are sometimes 3 regular and two volunteer or something in between

gambiting 3y ago
Same(or very similar) in the UK - you have lower level "magistrates court" where the judges are volunteers who are given legal training and are given access to actual paid career judges if they need clarification on something. I'm not sure if the magistrates can overrule regular judges in any way, but yeah, you can always appeal to a higher court if needed.

dpflug 3y ago

I've worked with judges. I could give you a mapping of charges to local judges where I'd prefer the judgement of 12 random people off the street. This isn't a normal job. We don't hire 6 to 23 people for a single job, and jurors aren't random. Yes, jury summons are sent randomly, but they'll have hundreds summoned and then jury selection starts. It's not unlike a job interview. If someone is on the jury who's going to be biased or unreasonable, that's a failure of their legal counsel.

Yeul 3y ago
Trust me if I was a defendant I'd prefer a jury system too because I know that people can be skillfully manipulated. But such a trial has nothing to do with justice. It relies on the dark arts of psychiatry.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]