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Instructions
Submit a formal research paper no later than Wednesday of this week (8 pages MAX). Your paper needs to analyze the jury selection process and its relationship to both: (a) Constitutional law, and (b) an allied field (e.g., education, history, law enforcement, public administration, public policy, psychology, sociology, technology, etc.).
For this assignment, due in Week 8:
Within your research paper, you must discuss:
Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
Peremptory challenges
Challenge for cause
Whether jurors may testify about their deliberations in the event of possible racial or ethnic bias
Racial or ethnic bias
Whether virtual jury trials comply with the fairness and impartiality goals of the Sixth Amendment.
Also address other subtopics that relate to the allied field required component.
Within that context, be sure to critically analyze at least:
1. two cases (one of which must be from 1990 to the present) that show how the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled in efforts to achieve the Sixth Amendment’s chief goal. (Make sure that all of your cases are still good law.)
2. two law review or other academic quality journal articles regarding criminal jury selection and the Sixth Amendment.
NOTE 1: These resources must support your paper’s thesis statement.
NOTE 2: Additional academic quality resources are welcome for use in your research paper, too.
General Guidelines for the research paper:
1. Write an introduction, which clearly identifies the topic of your report and the issues that you are illuminating. The introduction should include: (a) the thesis statement (basis of your report), as well as (b) a preview of your major points.
2. The body of your report should be dedicated to supporting your thesis statement with claims gleaned from: (a) your research into what others have written on the topic and data that you have gathered, (b) the course materials and discussions, (c) law, as well as (d) law review and other kinds of scholarly resources.
You must identify the issues associated with your thesis statement and the above-mentioned required components for the research paper. Similarly, you must analyze the arguments on these issues, as well as discuss the current status of the law. You also need to discuss any current pending cases and unresolved legal questions. Finally, you will discuss how the jury selection process should change the law, if at all.
3. Conclude your research paper by recapitulating your thesis and explaining in greater detail the significance of your findings, even if those findings are not what you had originally expected. If you would like, include within your conclusion some questions or recommendations about the jury selection process.
4. Your research paper must be well-organized, grammatically correct, and precisely-written so that your audience (whoever might read it) can understand easily the meaning that you are trying to convey to them. As the research paper’s author, you are the subject matter expert; convey that expertise (which you will gain through your research and analysis) to your audience through your graduate level writing.
Therefore, be sure to allow plenty of time for the editing phase of your writing process. Give yourself at least twice the amount of time that it took you to write the first draft to conduct the editing phase. Review your work carefully and repeatedly. Please see the rubric so that you know how to earn “Exemplary”.
NOTE 3: Legal Studies students must provide all citations to be in Bluebook style; this means that footnotes (at the bottom of the page) are required. (Non-Legal Studies students may use APA style, which requires endnotes at the end of your report.)
– Both citation styles require the use of quotation marks and a pinpoint citation to the page on which the quotation can be found in its original source for each quotation that you use.
– Avoid using more than one quotation for roughly every 4 pages of text in the main body your research paper.
NOTE 4: You must approach this research project objectively; let what you learn through your research and analytical efforts guide you to the actual answers to the question(s) raised in or by your thesis statement.
