The Verdict Is In | The Weight of Jury Decisions

PUBLIC SPEAKING & DEBATE | JUNIOR CLASS

THE VERDICT IS IN THE WEIGHT OF JURY DECISIONS

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Learning Objectives

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Skills We Learnt Last Week 1

Learning Facts: Loans When people need extra money, they can take out loans from banks, personal lenders or friends and family. These loans usually include an interest payment: an extra fee paid over time as a reward to the lender. In some circumstances, lenders can be predatory and borrowers can get trapped in a cycle of debt.

2

Public Speaking Skills: Depicting a Character Viewing loan proposals from the perspective of a borrower to articulate how their lives would be impacted.

3

Debating Skills: Rebuttal Rebuttal is a response to another person’s argument.

Skills We Will Learn This Week 1

Learning Facts: The Justice System What is a crime, what is a jury, and how do they work?

2

Public Speaking Skills: Structure Breaking down your speech into separate parts to make it easy to follow and understand,

3

Debating Skills: Delivering Rebuttal and Substantive Fitting rebuttal into our speech building blocks before we deliver our reasoning

SYMBOL OBJECTIVES:

Learn a special skill

Activity time

Key takeaway

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Class Rules Now that we all know each other, let’s make this class into a proper classroom! Here are some rules that we will all follow together: Before Class 1. Make sure that you’ve eaten breakfast/lunch and have gone to the bathroom 2. Join the zoom call a few minutes before class starts so we can get started right away!

At the Start of Class 1. Turn your camera on so we can see your lovely smile!

2. Let your coach know if you need to leave class early

During Class 1. Keep your camera on unless you are preparing during an activity 2. Put your hand up if you want to say something 3. Do not leave your computer during class - if you need to go to the bathroom, put your hand up and ask your coach before you go

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Awesome, now if we stick to these rules we will have more time for games and learning!

DEBT AND DESPAIR

Warm Up: Lawmaker If you could make any law you wanted, what would it be?

Tell Us: 1.

How would the law work? Would you make everybody do something, or would you stop people from doing something?

2. Why did you choose this law?

3. What happens if someone breaks your law?

Example If I could make any law in the world, I would ban homework.

If teachers wanted us to do school work, it would have to be within school hours. That way, kids can spend their time after school doing other things for their happiness and development, like playing sports, debating or watching tv. If a teacher set homework to a class and broke the law, they would get fined $500!

Time

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2 Mins (Preparation)

I would ban homework!

School work have to be within school hours. If a teacher broke the law, they would get fined $500!

e Hom w ork

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PART 1 What Is a Jury?

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THE VERDICT IS IN

The Justice System

What Is a Law? Every country has rules and regulations that people have to follow. When the government makes a rule that is binding, it’s called a law. Everyone has to follow the law, or else they face consequences.

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Learning Facts The justice system means every part of society that helps bring people to justice. It includes the law, police, jails and courthouses.

Some laws are criminal laws - if you break them, you get in trouble with the government, and they might even put you in jail. Crimes include dangerous driving, theft and murder.

Some laws are civil laws - if you break them, you have to make amends with another person who you wronged. For example, if you flooded your neighbour’s backyard, you would have to pay them the money to get it fixed.

Question Do you think that criminal law or civil law is more important? Why?

Are There Laws That Everyone in the World Has to Follow?

Sometimes, laws are so important that they apply to multiple countries, or even every country in the whole world. These might be trade laws - countries agreeing how they will buy and sell things from each other, or serious laws for breaching human rights, called crimes against humanity.

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What happens if you commit a crime?

If you might have committed a crime:

POLICE

INVESTIGATION

Someone might call the police to tell them that they’ve witnessed a crime, or the police might catch it themselves

To police gather evidence to determine whether they think a crime has been committed. Evidence might include things like video footage, witnesses or DNA

SENTENCING

if you are determined guilty, you get sentenced to suffer the consequence. For some crimes the sentence is to pay a fine, and for others it’s jail time. You can have different sentences for the same crime, depending on how things like whether you feel sorry for committing the crime, your age and development, and the harm it caused to others

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CHARGING

PLEA

The police determine whether they want to accuse you of a crime, based on the evidence they have collected.

Before the trial begins, you have a chance to tell the court whether you are guilty or not guilty. If you plea guilty, you do not have to have a trial to prove that you committed the crime.

DELIBERATION

TRIAL

the person in charge of making a decision looks at all of the facts and evidence, as well as the law itself. They decide whether you are guilty or not guilty.

You go to the courthouse.

The prosecution (lawyers that act on behalf of the police/government) make their case against you, and you or your lawyers get a chance to argue back against the claims (a defense).

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Activity: Quiz Time 1. Which of these options is NOT part of the justice system? a) The courthouse b) The jail c) The bank

2. What’s the difference between a crime and a civil law? a) Crimes are committed against society, and are prosecuted by the police, while civil laws are wrongs that affect another person privately b) Crimes are more serious, and can result in being the death penalty, while civil laws are usually not that important and result in paying a fine c) Crimes are things like murder and assault, and civil laws are things like stealing money or telling lies about someone

3. Which of the following is correct? a) Everyone gets the same punishment if they break the same law b) Before the police decide to prosecute you, they have to gather evidence c) You are not allowed to give your side of the story in a trial

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Fact Recall See if you can remember what we’ve learned about the justice system

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Answers Quiz Time 1. Which of these options is NOT part of the justice system? a) The courthouse b) The jail c) The bank

2. What’s the difference between a crime and a civil law? a) Crimes are committed against society, and are prosecuted by the police, while civil laws are wrongs that affect another person privately b) Crimes are more serious, and can result in being the death penalty, while civil laws are usually not that important and result in paying a fine c) Crimes are things like murder and assault, and civil laws are things like stealing money or telling lies about someone

3. Which of the following is correct? a) Everyone gets the same punishment if they break the same law b) Before the police decide to prosecute you, they have to gather evidence c) You are not allowed to give your side of the story in a trial

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How many answers did you get right?

Fact Recall See if you can remember what we’ve learned about the justice system

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Who decides whether you have committed a crime or not?

After you’ve been charged with a crime, there are three different options: 1. Plea Bargain This is where you admit that you are ‘guilty’, meaning you committed the crime. If the judge believes that you’re saying this genuinely, they may skip the trial and go straight to sentencing. Often, if you plead guilty at the start, the prosecution will offer you a better deal, e.g. a shorter time in prison.

2. Judge A judge decides whether you are guilty or not. Judges are experts of the law, and were acting lawyers before they became judges, so they’ve seen a lot of trials.

3. Jury A jury of 12 randomly selected citizens decide whether you are guilty or not, based on the facts of the case. Jury members also get guidance from the judge to help them understand all of the law.

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Plea Bargain

Judge

Jury

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What is a jury?

A jury is a group of 12 citizens selected randomly. As a whole, they often decide in criminal trials (and some civil trials) whether the accused is guilty or liable. When a jury decides, there is also a judge who controls the structure of the trial and explains the law.

Juries come from the idea of being judged by your peers. People argue that laws are made to keep society safe, and therefore it should be ordinary members of society who determine whether or not you are guilty. Because there are 12 people in the group, they are meant to represent all parts of society, including different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs.

A jury is meant to offset potential judge bias - the chance that the judge will enforce their own personal opinions instead of being fair.

Even if the jury decides whether you are guilty or not, the judge often still decides afterward the sentencing: the punishment the person should get if they are guilty.

Philosophical Thinking Trial by your peers

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How Is a Jury Selected?

A group of random citizens is formed together, and they are tested whether they meet the requirements to be a juror.

You cannot be a member of a jury if: You are not a citizen of that country and at least 18 years old You are a lawyer or you are directly involved in the justice system. This is because you have too much personal expertise/experience to represent an average citizen.

Conflict of interest: if you know people who are in the trial, you may be biassed for/against them

Juries are 12 citizens elected to represent normal people in society. This is supposed to make trials more fair, and to represent the will of the people who helped make the law through voting.

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PART 2 Do Juries Bring Justice?

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There are two decision makers in the trial: the judge or the jury. How do they compare?

Quality

Expertise

Personal Values

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Judge

Jury

Effects

Experts in the law. Have seen lots of cases

Not experts in the law.

Judges ar the nuanc might be m may be bi recognise criminals. because t profession worse at s views from

Receive special training to put aside their personal views on the case

Are a group of 12 people instead of one person, so the likelihood of bias is reduced if everyone has different opinions.

Some law discrimina judge enfo about mo injustice.J majority o discrimina

If juries are meant to represent the majority of society, then some minority groups might be discriminated against during a trial.

re more likely to understand ces of a case, whereas juries more prone to error.Judges iased because they e patterns in cases and Juries may be biased they have had less nal practice, so may be separating their personal m the case.

Different minority groups: Race Religion Gender

Sexuality Disability

Judge

ws may be inherently atory, meaning that if the orces them without thinking orals, they could create an Juries may represent the of citizens, who can often ate against the majority Jury

THE VERDICT IS IN

Rebuttal Debating Skills: Responding to Arguments Last week, we learned that rebuttal is a response to someone else’s argument. In order to win a debate, you have to do two things: 1. Build up reasons for why your team’s case is right (substantive) 2. Break down the strength of the other team’s case (substantive) A good way to think about this is sandcastles

If you make good arguments, you build up your own sandcastle and win the debate

If your opposition team also makes good arguments, then your sandcastles are equal height and the judge cannot decide who wins the debate.

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If you build out your own case AND take down the other team’s case, then your sandcastle is the only one left standing and you win the debate.

In a debate both teams try to build their own sandcastles while destroying the other team’s.

When you’re delivering rebuttal, you need to do three things: 1

Pinpoint: quickly refer to the other’s person’s argument. This is so the judge knows what part of their speech you are talking about. You want to keep this short because you want to save your time for actually responding!

2

Reasoning: explain why their point isn’t true. The best rebuttal has multiple reasons that attack the point in different ways

3

Summarize: explain to the judge what it means for the debate, now that their point doesn’t stand.

Example: "The first speaking of side opposition says that going to jail is too harsh a punishment for committing any crime. This is wrong for to reasons.

Firstly, crimes like murder can destroy families’ lives and leave them feeling broken and lost without their loved ones. Secondly, jail is important to keep violent criminals away from the rest of society, so that they can’t harm other people. This means that jail is sometimes a necessary option to keep us safe and punish people for bad crimes."

To win a debate, you need to rebut the other speaker’s arguments as well as build up your own points. To structure your rebuttal., you should do three things: pinpoint, reason and summarize

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Activity: Rebuttal Practice Rebut the statements on the board!

Make sure that when you deliver your rebuttal, you: Pinpoint

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Reasoning

Summarize

Time

1-2 Mins (Each Response's Preparation) 30 Secs (Respond)

Rules

You will have to rebut the statements on the board.

Everyone will have a try at rebutting each sentence.

Statement 1

Prep Time: 2 Mins

“Judges can never be biased. They go to law school for many years to learn how not to be biased, which means that it’s impossible for them to make a mistake.”

Statement 2

Prep Time: 2 Mins

If you have a jury, the result is going to be fair no matter what. This is for two reasons. The first is that the law isn’t that hard to understand. You just follow what it says on the paper and then you can’t get confused. Murder is murder, no matter what it looks like.

“The second reason is that it’s impossible to be biased with a jury. This is because there are 12 people in the jury, so it is guaranteed that they will fairly and equally represent every part of society.”

Statement 3

Prep Time: 1 Min

“People are never biased in court cases because of someone’s identity or background, like their ethnicity.

This is because the jury only cares about what the facts are, and they always put aside their personal views.”

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How Do We Counter Courtroom Bias?

Weighing Policy

Jury Selection Sometimes, lawyers are able to veto different people from being part of the jury for a case.

Pros: people who are clearly unsuitable for trial can be dismissed Cons: lawyers can strategically exclude people they think may be sympathetic to the other side’s case

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Diversity Quotas This involves making sure that there are a certain number of different groups of people in every trial, for example: Making sure the jury is 50% women and 50% men Making sure that there is racial diversity on the jury, and that all main ethnic/religious groups of the population is represented Pros: vulnerable minorities are less likely to be discriminated against Cons: some very small groups may be disproportionately represented, meaning that the jury is not actually representative of the general population

Bias Training This involves making sure that jury members take a compulsory course as to how bias works in the court and the justice system.

Pros: may make some people aware of their implicit biases Cons: people often don’t recognize when they are being biased themselves, and may still behave in a discriminatory manner

Question What policy do you think is the most effective at reducing bias? Why?

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PART 3 Rebuttal and Substantive

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Rebuttal

Now we know how to structure our rebuttal, the next part is to learn how to add it to the rest of our speech.

In previous classes, we have learned about our building blocks: the parts that every speech should have.

Structuring Speeches

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The building blocks for your speech are:

Introduction

Abrief sentence to explain what you are going to talk about in your speech

Reason 1

The first reason why you are right

Reason 2

The second reason why you are right

Summary

Why your reasoning has proven your point and you should win the debate

When we deliver rebuttal, this goes before our substantive reasoning. Therefore, a building block speech with rebuttal looks like this:

Introduction

Abrief sentence to explain what you are going to talk about in your speech

Rebuttal

Responding to the previous speech from the other team

Reason 1

The first reason why you are right

Reason 2

The second reason why you are right

Summary

Why your reasoning has proven your point and you should win the debate

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Activity: Rebuttal Practice Your speech will be about whether you think juries/judges are better than each other - you can choose.

For each of the building blocks, pick which answer you want to make, and then expand on your reasoning to build out your speech.

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If you are going to argue in favor of juries, your previous speaker said the following:

If you are going to argue in favor of judges, your previous speaker said the following:

“Judges are so smart that it doesn’t matter that there is only one of them. Because they have spent years at law school, it’s impossible for them to be biased or make a mistake.”

“Juries are a selection of normal people, which means they are likely to be biased. The majority of people in society are racist and sexist, so the jury is also likely to be racist and sexist.”

Time

10 Mins (Preparation) 1-2 Mins (Speaking)

Rules

You have to decide whether you think that judges or juries are more fair. You are going to deliver a speech using your building blocks, rebuttal to a point on the board for the other side.

You have to deliver a speech with the following building blocks: I believe that... (pick one)

Block 1: Introduction

juries are better than judges

/

judges are better than juries

Block 2: Rebuttal

The previous speaker stated that (insert pinpoint here).

This is not true, because (insert reasoning).

This means that (summarize your rebuttal).

My first reason is why juries are better is about… (pick one)

Block 3: Reason 1

the number of people judging

/

legal expertise Explain why your reason is good or bad.

My first reason is why juries are better is about… (pick one)

Block 4: Reason 2

practice

/

representation of minority groups Explain why your reason is good or bad.

Block 5: Conclusion

When you think about (insert your two reasons), (pick one) are better.

juries

/

judges

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RECAP

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1

Every society has laws you have to follow. If you break the law, you face consequences, either to the state (a crime) or the person you wronged (a civil law breach).

2

If people thinking you have committed a crime, the police must gather the evidence and decide whether or not to charge you. If you are charged and plead not guilty, you will have to go to trial and you will either be judged by a judge or jury.

3

A jury is a group of 12 people that are meant to represent ordinary citizens. The idea behind a jury is that you should be judged by your peers, because they are less likely to be biased and represent the views of society.

4

While judges are experts, they’re only one person and can sometimes make mistakes. While juries are a mixture of different opinions, they are not as expert at the law as a judge is.

5

Rebuttal requires three steps: pinpoint, reasoning and summary.

6

Rebuttal goes at the start of our building blocks speech, straight after our introduction. The structurer of your speech should therefore be: 1 2 3 4 5

Introduction Rebuttal Reason 1 Reason 2 Conclusion

THE VERDICT IS IN

THANK YOU! EXCITED TO SEE YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!

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