All 6 lay jurors question defendant on third day of trial

Wednesday 05th August, 11:34 AM JST

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timorborder at 01:18 PM JST - 5th August

Obviously the jury were taken aside and berated last night by the powers that be. The people in control want a semblance of jury "participation," so they told the jurors to pick up their game. The probably threatened the jurors with no being able to receive those spiffy little participation badges they have designed. You know, the ones with the stick figure with his head in a noose. Apparently you get a bit of the body every time you participate in a trial. You participate in six trails and you get all six badges and a free miniature scaffold as a present (lol).
NeoJamal at 01:24 PM JST - 5th August

Japan's jury trials are actually the resurrection of the German lay-judges or "Schöffe". As Japan's post Meiji legal system is based mostly on the Germanic lines, (with minor tweekings of the commercial code and adversarial procedure by the Americans :P) so this was reasonably expected.

I believe Germany has not had a jury trials since its abolition in 1924, at least on the federal level. The reason for its abolition has nothing to do with any Nazi tirade since these goons weren't even in government then. It was believed that the trial procedure was too complicated for German jurors at the time. I have my doubts that the same could be said about Germans today especially, if the Japanese who are known to be the most illogical beings in industrialised world could bring an accused to the mercy of the deductive and inductive capabilities of the said folk: (whether or not the re-introduction of the jury in Japan is another question). No doubt German jurists would be interested in the happenings of Japanese jury trials in due course and consider whether or not a similar system be re-introduced to Germany as well.
Triumvere at 01:39 PM JST - 5th August

Stop blaming the jurors and put the blame were it really belongs: on the nonsensical "lay judge" system they are being forced to participate in. I've had more than enough of these psuedo-racist "Japan is a nation of immature children" comments.
kaemdros at 01:49 PM JST - 5th August

this is a good example why it's a bad idea to allow, or trust the jury to do anything other than absorb information during a trial. these people are not trained psychologists, criminologists, forensics specialists, or anything else of the sort. they do not have the special skills it takes to analyze this kind of information in a logical, objective fashion. they don't even know how to ask questions correctly.

"Why did you use a survival knife instead of a kitchen knife?"

That kind of crap questioning is exactly what we see when we let jurors attempt to play detective.
biglittleman at 02:01 PM JST - 5th August

The next question will be can you eat natto?
DeepAir65 at 02:17 PM JST - 5th August

Just to be clear as some people seem to have missed it - the defendant is not a defendant as he has already admitted guilt. What they are doing is determining his sentence and as such need to determine how premeditated it was.

As has been said think of them more as Lay Judges and I suspect Timorborder has it right - they have been taken to task for not asking questions before other than the one brave soul yesterday.

This all sounds a bit strange to us westerners used to jury trials but this is not the US or Europe - get over it.
viking68 at 02:48 PM JST - 5th August

So the guys says, "I chose the survival knife to kill the neighbor because..." obvious admission of guilt and premeditation no matter the answer. Plus, why should a defendent have to speak at a trial. Anything they say will be either an admission of guilt or treated as a lie and, ergo, an admission of guilt.

I like the idea of direct examination of witnesses (to the exclusion of the accused unless they voluntarily testify), but I would also like to see attorney's being able to object to a line of questioning.

Plus, many things are not normally seen by a jury in the US because they do not meet evidentiary standards. Imagine the OJ juries hearing the inadmissable blood evidence because blood disappeared between the sample taken from OJ and the labs or information about the police with a vendetta against OJ and an infatuation with his then dead wife. Could they distinguish between what was admissable and not? In reality, that jury heard enough to draw conclusions from the evidence and their personal experience that the police were corrupt and probably framed OJ. Clearly, OJ was guilty as they get.

So, does this system prejudice defendants becuase juries see things that should be in admissable and they cannot differentiate between admissable and inadmissable like a trained attorney or judge?

For all those who say, let em hang, consider yourself as an innocent defendant and what you would want to happen.

Suppose the Japanese thing for a jury to ask would be, "are you sorry"?, i.e., now is your opportunity to cry and bow profusely.
bamboohat at 03:50 PM JST - 5th August

I'm not sure they need a lay jury at all, all they are going to do is ask foolish questions after the police have beaten a confession out of the guy...
DarkKnightNine at 06:01 PM JST - 5th August

> Question: did he just happen to have a kitchen knife in his hand as he was in the middle of preparing lunch when the kerfuffle started? Or did he go out and buy a "survival knife" or dig one out from his camping gear in the shed for the purpose? (pre-meditation). That's my guess as to the relevance of the question. Of course, not having been there at court, I couldn't begin to judge whether or not the question was stupid, wise, or relevant. Were you in the room noborito? >

LMAO!!!! Taj you give the Japanese way too much credit. You honestly think intelligent, well thought out questions to determine the defendant's state of mind when he committed the crime are being asked? How long have you been here? Two days, weeks, months, years? However long it's been, it's obviously not long enough. After being here for 23 years, I've never seen a Japanese ask a relevant question. Just look at the news interviews on TV or press conferences.
Heda_Madness at 06:11 PM JST - 5th August

Or alternatively, you could deal with the Japanese on a daily basis in a business sense (not English teaching) and you may actually discover quite a lot.
Gaijinocchio at 06:48 PM JST - 5th August

a not guilty verdict sounds rather unlikely ...

I thought it was already determined the man was guilty and this trial is to measure the severity of his sentencing? He can't get a not guilty verdict if he's already guilty
infamousgaijin at 08:53 PM JST - 5th August

i would hate to have my sentence determined by the kind of people who watch japanese TV. (shudders)
smithinjapan at 11:17 PM JST - 5th August

I can't believe they can ask the defendant questions in such serious cases. As for the juror feeling sick... will they let ANYONE off on ANYTHING? Hell, I felt 'sick' the other day when I didn't want to go to someone's house for dinner.

Shaky start, but hey.
taikan at 04:29 AM JST - 6th August

It is inaccurate to refer to the saiban-in as jurors. Rather, they are the equivalent of temporary judges who have not received legal training. Thus, on issues of law they should defer to the professional judges on the panel, but on issues of fact (including motivation, intent, etc.) they should not defer.

Also, even in legal systems that have jurors, rather than panels consisting of professional and lay judges, jurors may be allowed to ask questions. However, they may not be allowed to ask them directly. For example, in the US jurors usually are required to submit questions to the judge in writing, and the judge then decides whether to ask the question, either as worded by the juror or with some changes in wording necessitated to meet evidentiary standards.
NeoJamal at 06:27 AM JST - 6th August

i would hate to have my sentence determined by the kind of people who watch japanese TV. (shudders)

Especially the generation that grew up with Conan the Detective, reading murder mysteries written by authors and publishers who have weekly deadlines doesn't lead you to enlightenment.