Should Criminal Juries Give Reasons for Their Verdicts?: The Spanish Experience and the Implications of the European Court of Human Rights Decision in Taxquet v. Belgium

Authors

Stephen C. Thaman

Abstract

This article uses the European Court of Human Rights judgment of Taxquet v. Belgium, decided by the Grand Chamber in 2010, which held that in some cases the trial jury's failure to give reasons for its verdict of guilt could constitute a violation of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, as a springboard for discussing whether or not criminal trial juries in Europe and the United States should be more accountable for their verdicts. The article explains the special jury verdicts traditionally used in Europe and the new Spanish requirement that juries give reasons for their verdicts, and then proposes that these procedural arrangements might be useful in limiting the number of erroneous guilty verdicts in U.S. criminal trials.

Recommended Citation

Stephen C. Thaman, Should Criminal Juries Give Reasons for Their Verdicts?: The Spanish Experience and the Implications of the European Court of Human Rights Decision in Taxquet v. Belgium, 86 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 613 (2011).
Available at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol86/iss2/8