Legal Commentary

The Top Ten Myths of Jury Trials

By Jeralyn

Richard Crawford, a founder and past national president of the American Society of Trial Consultants (not a lawyers' group) lists his top ten myths about jury trials.

I haven't yet read them all, but No. 7 leapt out at me. " 7. A trial is about discovering the truth."

I agree that's a big myth but I would give a different explanation. Mr. Crawford says trials are about justice, not truth. One can hope truth (or justice) will be reflected in the outcome, but a criminal trial is only about a testing of the evidence and whether the prosecution can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Semantics, maybe, but it's an interesting list on the whole.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 05, 2008 (boomark / email).