The Jury only knows the facts that are permitted into evidence.
In many cases, past offenses are not permitted to be referenced. Evidence that had an error in the chain of custody is suppressed. The prosecutor and defender take turns kicking people off the jury, so the people who look the kindest or smartest are gone.
Jury trial is indeed better than the French system where judges both run the court, and decide, with noone on the side of the defendant.
In many cases, past offenses are not permitted to be referenced. Evidence that had an error in the chain of custody is suppressed. The prosecutor and defender take turns kicking people off the jury, so the people who look the kindest or smartest are gone.
In Texas, that information would be excluded from the guilt phase of the trial but not the penalty phase.
In the case of the jury for which I was picked, they almost ran out of people on the jury pool. Due to the circumstances of the case, we had to be willing to consider any punishment from probation to 99 years. There were about 20 people who were dismissed due to being unable to consider such a wide range of punishments. It's interesting that both I and another person who were able to serve for the week but not beyond, got picked. The guy who ended up being the jury foreman couldn't be there if the trial had to go on for a second week due to work out of town. I didn't want to have to spend the weekend deliberating, because I was going out of town to see my college roommate who was in the US for a few days before heading back to Europe where he works.