2. 考研
  3. Many Americans regard the jury system as a concrete expression of crucial democratic values, including the principles that all c

Many Americans regard the jury system as a concrete expression of crucial democratic values, including the principles that all c

admin2013-11-29  136
问题     Many Americans regard the jury system as a concrete expression of crucial democratic values, including the principles that all citizens who meet minimal qualifications of age and literacy are equally competent to serve on juries; that jurors should be selected randomly from a representative cross section of the community; that no citizen should be denied the right to serve on a jury on account of race, religion, sex, or national origin; that defendants are entitled to trial by their peers; and that verdicts should represent the conscience of the community and not just the letter of the law. The jury is also said to be the best surviving example of direct rather than representative democracy. In a direct democracy, citizens take turns governing themselves, rather than electing representatives to govern for them.
    But as recently as in 1986, jury selection procedures conflicted with these democratic ideals. In some states, for example, jury duty was limited to persons of supposedly superior intelligence, education, and moral character. Although the Supreme Court of the United States had prohibited intentional racial discrimination in jury selection as early as the 1880 case of Strauder v. West Virginia, the practice of selecting so-called elite or blue-ribbon juries provided a convenient way around this and other antidiscrimination laws.
    The system also failed to regularly include women on juries until the mid-20th century. Although women first served on state juries in Utah in 1898, it was not until the 1940s that a majority of states made women eligible for jury duty. Even then several states automatically exempted women from jury duty unless they personally asked to have their names included on the jury list. This practice was justified by the claim that women were needed at home, and it kept juries unrepresentative of women through the 1960s.
    In 1968, the Congress of the United States passed the Jury Selection and Service Act, ushering in a new era of democratic reforms for the jury. This law abolished special educational requirements for federal jurors and required them to be selected at random from a cross section of the entire community. In the landmark 1975 decision Taylor v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court extended the requirement that juries be representative of all parts of the community to the state level. The Taylor decision also declared sex discrimination in jury selection to be unconstitutional and ordered states to use the same procedures for selecting male and female jurors.
From the principles of the U.S. jury system, we learn that______.
选项 A、both literate and illiterate people can serve on juries
B、defendants are immune from trial by their peers
C、no age limit should be imposed for jury service
D、judgment should consider the opinion of the public
答案D
解析 本题信息点是the principles of the U．S．jury system，该信息点出现在文章第一段第一句及随后的并列that从句中，由此我们可以将其信息整理如下：(1)that all citizens who meet minimal qualifications of age and literacy are equally competent to serve on juries“任伺达到最低年龄和文化程度限制的公民都有资格参与陪审”；(2)that jurors should be selected randomly from a representative cross section of the community“陪审员应该在社区代表中随机挑选”；that no citizen should be denied the right to serve on a jury on account of race，religion，sex，or national origin“任何人不得由于种族、宗教、相别或民族原因被拒绝参与陪审”；(3)that defendants are entitled to trial by their peers“被告人有权接受同龄人的陪审”；(4)that verdicts should represent the conscience of the community and not just the letter of the law“裁定应该代表良知而不仅仅代表法律条文”。把这些信息与本题选项比对得知D项符合第二条信息，为本题答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/j8e4777K
0

考研英语二

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)