Jury Conduct

This article exposes the rhetoric, demonstrates differences in the design and regulation of jury trials, and highlights ethical challenges for regulators as well as jurors at each of the three stages of a jury trial: before evidence gathering commences, during trials, and after trials. Experiential and empirical data help to clarify the challenges of being a juror and of regulating jurors in the hope of producing ethical juror conduct and the ethical treatment of jurors. It should be noted that many jurors are reluctant conscripts to jury service. This means that a significant challenge exists to maintain ethical behavior according to the relevant jury law and to encourage accurate application of law to the facts of a case at hand by nonexpert legal decision makers.