Twelve Friends of Justice
By William J. Burns, U.S. Ambassador to Russia
Moskovskiy Komsomolets
November 01, 2007
http://moscow.usembassy.gov/bilateral/statement.php?record_id=123
I recently saw the superb new Russian movie "12," a remake of the classic American drama "Twelve Angry Men." It is fitting that a great Russian director, Nikita Mikhalkov, should make a new, Russian version of this American movie, for 12 reminds us that the U.S. and Russia share great legal, as well as cinematic, traditions.
Like its predecessor, 12 is the story of a jury presented with what appears to be a simple murder case. At the beginning of their deliberations, all but one of the 12 jurors are ready to convict without even considering the evidence. However, one holdout insists that they review the evidence carefully and, as they do so, painstakingly, they come to see that the accused is really innocent and save him from a monstrous injustice. The only major difference between 12 and its American predecessor is that this time the action takes place in contemporary Russia, rather than 1950's America.
12, though not always legally accurate (for example, in contrast to the U.S., Russian jury verdicts need not be unanimous), brilliantly depicts the virtues of the jury system. The movie shows how 12 strangers working together can identify gaps or strengths in the evidence that none of the lawyers or the judge noticed, a virtue of the jury system recognized since antiquity. As Aristotle wrote, courts in which many decide are better than those in which only one decides, just as feasts prepared by many are better than those prepared by only one. The movie also shows what anyone who has served on a jury knows - jury service forever changes people, giving them a new appreciation of justice and civic duty. (Not surprisingly, a recent survey found that 75% of Russians had a more positive view of the justice system after serving as jurors, while only 1% left with a negative view.)
Taken together, Twelve Angry Men and 12 remind us that trial by jury is one of the great traditions shared by the U.S. and Russia. Trial by jury has been one of the most basic rights of Americans since the founding of the United States in the late 18th Century. Russia's 1864 legal reforms mandated trial by jury and immediately Russia began to produce some of the world's greatest trial lawyers. To this day, the jury addresses of Koni, Plevako and Spasovich, just to name a few, have much to teach trial lawyers in any country. Though critics are quick to cite certain notorious cases in which, they claim, Russia's jury system failed, they neglect the thousands of cases in which Russian juries did justice and protected the innocent. These include, for example, a 1913 case in which a jury made up mostly of simple peasants acquitted Mendel Bailis, a factory manager wrongly accused of murdering a young boy.
Drawing on its pre-revolutionary traditions, in 1993, Russia revived trial by jury in certain regions for certain serious crimes. In 2002, Russia's new Code of Criminal Procedure mandated jury trials throughout the country. President Putin has been a strong supporter of jury trials and I am proud of the cooperation that our countries have developed in this area. The Embassy has worked closely with the General Procuracy Academy to organize regular prosecutorial trial advocacy courses taught jointly by experienced U.S. and Russian prosecutors. This past summer, the Embassy organized two trips for Russian jury trial experts to the United States. Members of these delegations observed U.S. jury trials, offered their U.S. counterparts helpful comments, and lectured on jury trials in Russia. Our colleagues at the American Bar Association work closely with Russian bar associations to provide trial training courses for Russian defense lawyers. We are eager to continue and expand these programs, which are so beneficial to both countries.
Unfortunately, both of our countries have from time to time experienced miscarriages of justice resulting from improper influence on jurors. Maintaining the integrity of the jury system requires constant vigilance and the lesson of such cases is that jurors need to be better protected, not that the system itself should be abandoned. Over time, the U.S. has developed effective means to protect jurors and this is yet another area in which exchange of experience might benefit both countries.
As the great pre-revolutionary Russian jurist Ivan Foinitskii wrote, trial by jury enables society to take advantage of the wisdom of its citizens and, at the same time, makes citizens feel that the justice system is something they have made, not an alien creation of the government. It ensures equality between the prosecution and defense and protects citizens from becoming innocent victims of wrongful accusation. For these reasons, Foinitskii considered it the closest that mankind has come to an ideal form of justice. 12 is not only a brilliant film; it is a powerful reminder of the good that can come from engaging citizens directly in their own judicial institutions through the jury system.