The Right to a Jury of Our Peers Assumes We Still Live Among People Capable of Sound Judgment, Which We Don’t

The foundation of the American legal system was built on a simple bedrock principle: 12 ordinary people, picked at random from the same streets as those accused of a crime, could hear evidence and collectively decide the truth.

For a long time, that foundation has held. There have been exceptions, but a jury has historically almost always done its work — and taken it as a solemn civic duty.

Now, the Sixth Amendment never assured us each a panel of engineers and rocket scientists. But it did promise a fair trial before a jury of people like us, bound by an oath, and capable of judgment that could be trusted.

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Staff Writer

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