Why it is felt important that Jury trials exist?

Answer 1

The jury was originally developed to put a sense of balance and justice into the decision of whether a person was guilty of a crime that he/she was charged with. Modern juries are the result of many years of judgments being meted out by an upper class that had no interest in justice.

Answer 2

Theoretically one of the reasons is to make a law unenforceable in practice if a randomly selected jury is more likely than not to be opposed to it in principle, however because the education system teaches us to hold the law above our own judgment the system is heavily slanted in favour of the establishment. Another reason is to limit the impact of officials' personal interest on a case, although again this is somewhat subverted by the wide powers of a judge to cut off particular lines of questioning or tell the jury (and be obeyed, in my experience) not to consider particular lines of argument.

Answer 3

A jury listens to evidence and testimony. When the court system was first established in the middle ages people couldn't write or read so they had to tell what the problem was and give evidence. A system developed that people got up and told their stories and had people give testimony to prove their case. The jury was a neutral way to weigh the truth and to decide what the facts in the case were.

Answer 4

(in the US) To satisfy the requirement that you be tried by a jury of your peers.

Answer 5

The point of a jury is to restrain the power of judges to make arbitrary or unfair rulings.