I’ve always been confused by this.
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Why would you want a bunch of randoms to decide your fate, and not the actual judge with a law degree and years of experience?
Why do those people have more power than the judge? They can decide anything they want and the judge is basically just the guy who signs and does the paperwork.
In: 2634
Because in the prior ages, justice was meted out by one person – the local lord (or the King in the cases of “High Justice”). Securing the right for local *people* to determine whether someone was guilty of a crime was a big accomplishment.
The jury system predates the founding of the United States, but people in the new country were very familiar with the injustice a single judge could deliver; enshrining the right of a trial by jury into the US Constitution was probably a no-brainer.
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