Why Do We Have a Jury System?

The Constitution of the United States guarantees each U.S. citizen a right to trial by jury in both criminal and civil matters. The jury must be present and hear evidence, and it also must be impartial. Impartial means that the jurors must not have already made up their minds about the outcome of the case. To ensure that the jury is impartial , the lawyers for both sides of a case have the opportunity to remove any jurors who appear to them to be biased. Juries must also be representative. This means that the jurors must be from the same community where the crime or injury occurred and the jury pool must reflect the makeup of the larger community.