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
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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
5.
Which one of the following █████ ███████ ███ ████ █
a
obstinate
We are looking for a word with a negative tone that describes someone who is slowing something down because they won’t agree with the rest of the group. (A) is exactly what we’re looking for here.
b
suspicious
The juror in this sentence is slowing things down because they won’t agree with the rest of the jury. There is nothing to indicate that this single juror is suspicious, just that they are preventing a unanimous verdict. Because of this, (B) is unsupported.
c
careful
Being careful is a positive trait for jurors, but in the sentence we’re looking at, critics
d
conscientious
Being a conscientious juror is a good thing, but in the sentence we’re looking at, critics
e
naive
This doesn’t make sense in the context of the sentence. In the sentence, the critics say that one single juror is forcing a retrial because they won’t agree with the rest of the jury. There is nothing to indicate that this single juror is clueless, so (E) is unsupported.