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Notes -
There is an extreme dearth of studies because (a) everybody knows what they’ll find - there was a major UK study about 20 years ago on juries that found the exact result you’d expect - and (b) even for the right it’s not worth the political fallout.
In the long term, jury trials are not viable in a multiracial society with additional sectarian tensions. Lee Kuan Yew knew this when he decided Singapore wouldn’t have jury trials despite its legal system based on common law. The Indians knew this when they decided to abolish jury trials in India, where the same was true. The Malaysians knew this when they abolished them after years of cases decided along racial lines in 1995, where again the same was and is true. Interestingly Hong Kong still has them, although that’s arguably because the population is relatively homogenous ~90% Cantonese speakers.
I think jury trials will be abolished in the UK before long. The left hates them in rape trials (and tried to abolish them for rape cases in Scotland recently) and the right increasingly dislike them because several juries in left wing British cities nullified verdicts in BLM and eco-warrior related vandalism cases even when the judge essentially instructed the jury to vote guilty. There was also a case where a leftist trade unionist called for slitting the throats of his political enemies and was cleared by a jury last year.
But in the US? I think the system is too ingrained. Maybe there will be attempts to alter jury composition, but I can’t see them being abolished.
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