Recently, Judges Stephanos Bibas and Richard Sullivan discussed the benefits of having more informed and empowered juries at a seminar titled “Mercy, Retribution, and the Sentencing Judge.”
After the seminar, the Director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, Matthew Cavedon, wrote a new blog post discussing how restoring the proper role of juries will help restore mercy in our criminal justice system, writing:
“A jury that is curated by prosecutors, buffeted by judges, and kept ignorant of consequences cannot be the doer of justice and the reservoir of mercy. It is reduced to being a mere functionary, instead of embodying government by the people.
That degradation ignores what colonial Americans understood: mechanistic justice is no justice at all. Justice without mercy is incomplete, and the community’s conscience, carried by 12 ordinary jurors, deserves a central place in sentencing.”
To speak with Cavedon further on the proper role of juries, contact Christopher Tarvardian.
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