Juries in the United States

A citizen's right to a trial by jury is a central feature of the United States Constitution.^[1] It is considered a fundamental principle of the American legal system.

Laws and regulations governing jury selection and conviction/acquittal requirements vary from state to state (and are not available in courts of American Samoa), but the fundamental right itself is mentioned five times in the Constitution: Once in the original text (Article III, Section 2) and four times in the Bill of Rights (in the Fifth, the Sixth, and the Seventh Amendments).

The American system utilizes three types of juries: Investigative grand juries, charged with determining whether enough evidence exists to warrant a criminal indictment; petit juries (also known as a trial jury),^[2] which listen to the evidence presented during the course of a criminal trial and are charged with determining the guilt or innocence of the accused party; and civil juries, which are charged with evaluating civil lawsuits.

The power of the jury has declined substantially since the founding relative to other branches of government thanks to practices like judicial acquittal, summary judgment, judges deciding money damages grand juries not being required in all states, and plea-bargaining.^[3] Suja A. Thomas argues the shifting of any power to judges and other branches by the Supreme Court is unconstitutional and undesirable.^[3] Robert Burns agrees, arguing that elites gain power when judges, not juries, decide cases.^[4]