Lawyer and civil law specialist Gvantsa Zhorzholiani spoke about the Institute of Jury court in air of the radio Commersant. She spoke in detail about Jury selection process and the responsibility to serve on a jury.
“The law determines the cases to be considered by the jury. These are: intentional murder, intentional harm to human health, inhumane treatment, unlawful imprisonment, innocent prosecution of a person, unjustified detention of a person in a psychiatric hospital.
If the defense agrees his case to be heard by a jury, the jury selection process begins. The defense names any number in court, for example 83, and the judge takes every 83rd person from the registry office database and compiles a list of 50 of them.
After that jurors list is made. The jurors should be over the age of 18 and registered in the database of the Civil Registry of Georgia; Understanding the state language of criminal procedure; for those living on the territory of Abkhazia it is the Abkhaz language, Free of physical or mental limitations that would prevent her/him from performing the duties of a juror.
Those excluded from the jury roll include: an investigator, a police officer, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a lawyer who has any information on this case, who is a family member or acquaintance of persons connected with this case. . A jury must be composed of 12 jurors and 2 substitute jurors in case one of the judges on the list will not attend the court hearing for a valid reason.
The individuals in the list will receive notice from the court that they have been selected as jurors. After this, the citizen has 2 days to send a response to the court on whether there are grounds for his exclusion. The grounds are as follows: if, over the past one year, he/she has already acted as a juror, the state of health, the citizen carries out the work that cannot be replaced, if the citizen is over 70 years old, if the citizen has been prosecuted for a drug-related crime" , - Gvantsa Zhorzholiani notes.
In her words, if a citizen has no preventing reasons, he is obliged to appear in court, otherwise he will be fined GEL 1,000- 1,500.
“If such a notice is not sent, this means that the citizen is obliged to appear in court. If a person does not fulfill this obligation, he will be fined GEL 1 000-1 500. Also, if he appears but does not fulfill his duty, in this case the judge will fine the citizen.
Jury duty is unpaid, but if the person is employed, he or she will be reimbursed as usual and will be paid for missing days. Also, the state compensates the citizen for the expenses he needs to travel to another city, stay there," the lawyer says.
In Zhorzholiani’s words, if the person is found not guilty, the verdict of the jury is not subject to appeal, the fairness of a guilty verdict is determined by the judge.
Jurors can also decide the length of the sentence. If the defense and prosecution reach an agreement, the jurors will present their opinion to the judge, and the judge will agree or disagree with their decision.
As for appealing the guilty verdict passed by the jurors, if the judge decides that it is not subject to appeal, it cannot be appealed, although if new jurors are selected, the case will be considered anew,” Gvantsa Zhorzholiani explains.
