Jury Trials Becoming Novelties

The national decline in both criminal and civil jury trials is evidenced in the Southern District of New York, which last year held the lowest number of criminal jury trials since 2004. Just 50 criminal jury trials were held in the two federal courthouses in Manhattan and a third in White Plains, compared to 106 in 2005. “It’s hugely disappointing,” said Judge Jed. S. Rakoff. “A trial is the one place where the system really gets tested. Everything else is done behind closed doors.” Experts say mandatory minimum sentences have contributed to the dip in jury trials, and have created a system that favors the prosecutor. In 1997, about 3,200 of 63,000 federal defendants were convicted in jury trials, according to federal court data nationwide; in 2015, there were just 1,650 jury convictions out of 81,000 defendants.