Self-study
P1
The jury trial is one of the handful of democratic institutions that allow individual citizens, rather than the government, to make important societal decisions. █ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████████ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ████████████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████████ ███
Intro to Topic ·
Unanimity as a requirement in jury trials
This requirement compels the jury to deliberate fully and truly before reaching its verdict.
Critics ·
of unanimity
Unanimity can result in hung juries (deadlock) which hampers the judicial system by forcing a retrial. Critics recommend discarding unanimity.
P2
███ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ███
Critique (of the Critics) / Main Point ·
The costs of a hung jury do not outweigh the benefits of unanimity
Sounds like the conclusion. Let's see if the author can back up this cost-benefit argument.
Premise 1 ·
Jury trials are rare and hung juries even more rare
Premise 2 ·
Hung juries is not a bad thing; it's a sign that the system is working
P3
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Premise 3 ·
Unanimity increases chances of fair verdict
Decreases chances of a false conviction
Premise 4 ·
Dissenting opinion is an important part of the deliberation process
Loss of unanimity will undermine society's confidence in the verdict.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
3.
Which one of the following ██████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████
a
The risk of ██████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ███
Supported. In P3, the author expresses support for the unanimity requirement because it
b
Fairness in jury ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ███
Unsupported. The third paragraph is about the actions of jurors and does not mention judges.
c
Careful adherence to ███ █████████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██████ █████████
Unsupported. P3 says that the unanimity requirement
d
Safeguards must be ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████████████
Unsupported. P3 does not mention irresponsible jurors. In fact, P3 is
e
The jury system ██ ██████████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ████████
Unsupported. P3 discusses how to make the jury system better and reduce the chances of unfairness; P3 does not argue that the jury system is inherently (and permanently) flawed.