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Show A 1 AiImfs Jury Trials Changing Favorably For Americans By Harry M. Fhilo President Association of Trial lawyers of America The United States court system has begun to give some meaning to the constitutional con-stitutional guarantees of jury trials. Blue ribbon juries, once popular with some judges, are gradually giving way to panels which include minorities, mi-norities, poor people and working people. Working people now can often afford to sit on a jury because union contracts require re-quire that employers supplement supple-ment the low jury pay in most states. Appellate courts are reversing the decisions of trial judges who seek to unreasonably limit the jury's role as fact finder. Some judges are even giving preliminary instructions on the law to allow jurors to be participants partici-pants and know what the case is about, and many juris- Harry M, Philo nHW ,w. i"g written jury instructions to be taken to the jury room. In other words, we haw begun to Bee fairer trial and less injustice. This means Hint plaint it f may he able to win a jury trial, that a criminal indictment does not mean automatic conviction, political dissidents cannot N railroaded as easily s MJ were in the 1920s and I9s- Trial lawyers on the sJ of people bring a lifetime oi experience in the courts representing rep-resenting the maimed those accused of crime. It", are nearlv unanimous in t conviction that the rM ' a trial by a jury of oM peers is our single precious democratic n$nt. Chief Justice Burser vocates curtailing of the jury and limitations on criminal jury. Limit the right to trial t' rvached a very dange level when two out ol I judges on the Third CV Court of Appeals conch that some civil lit',ni be too complex for the I -j but understandable to jUt fact, judge, to have less comprrt' sion of mechanical priw I than would a jury ." collective life expo',p" , Former Supreme Justice William 0. said it best when h "A jurv reflects the and mores of i from which it A" ,J live only for the does Justice accord" its limits." . It i. vital U'V svstem that all tnsl and all American" - the lime ami pfr',rV j prr to defend, support aorve the jury tyf'1" cilUen's right to trial W |