Anonymous Juries in the Canadian Judicial System
The Canadian and essentially North American criminal justice system has traditionally made the identities and addresses of jurors known to the judge, the prosecution, and the defense solely. That tradition began to erode with the unprecedented sua sponte trial court decision to use an anonymous jury in the case of United States v. Barnes and lead to similar precedent in Canada with the case of The Crown v. Diroguay, two highly publicized criminal trials of notorious organized crime figures in New York City and Toronto respectively. Since "Barnes," Federal prosecutors in New York haverequested and been granted anonymous juries in a number of similar cases, a development which has generated criticism. On the other hand, anonymous juries have been employed across Canada ever since as more and more local systems adopt the precedent. This paper first addresses the issue of whether juror anonymity violates a defendant's right to a jury trial by adversely affecting the defendant's ability to exercise effectively peremptory challenges during voir dire. It also discusses the effect an anonymous jury may have on the presumption that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Also considered are attempts by trial judges, through partic
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2162
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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