The Jury's Out The Fight To Save The American Legal System With Shannon Price

THE JURY’S OUT: The Fight to Save the American Legal System (Cornell University Press; November 15, 2026), retired Judge Pierre H. Bergeron and law professor Shannon Price illuminate how assaults on the jury’s power began not long after the Constitution was signed. For centuries and in plain sight, leaders in business, politics, and the law—notably, judges and Supreme Court justices—have undermined the jury’s legitimacy and ability to dispense justice in our courtrooms. “As sacred as the jury right is in our American experience, powerful forces have intentionally crafted a judicial system that is actively hostile to jury trials,” the authors explain.Drawing on extensive research and interviews with judges, lawyers, and everyday people confronting our judicial system, THE JURY’S OUT exposes concerted efforts to nullify the American right to a trial by jury:        Efficiency, the driving factor behind plea bargaining, which pressures criminal defendants to plead guilty and give up their right to trial at the expense of wrongful convictions and feeding the incarceration crisis.      Elitism, expressed by Supreme Court justices, politicians, and business leaders who believe that the justice system functions better when ordinary people don’t get a say.Money, the exorbitant—often unnecessary—costs that transform jury trials into a luxury good reserved for the rich and those with nothing left to lose.Racism, sexism, and discrimination, insidious forces that thwart jury representation and effectively deny our most vulnerable citizens the right to a jury of their peers.  Bergeron and Price advocate for empowering juries rather than focusing on their failures. The remarkable, true-crime tale of Dean Gillispie—who was wrongfully convicted in a jury trial and vindicated decades later by a civil jury—forms the backbone of their realistic and timely call for the jury’s revival.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.