NC voters will decide on right to jury trial

North Carolina voters will have the chance to add an amendment to the state’s constitution during the November election.

The proposed amendment would allow people charged with a felony to waive their right to a trial by jury in favor of a bench trial, in which a judge would decide guilt or innocence.

The proposal will appear as a question on this fall’s ballot. If a majority of North Carolina voters approve the measure, the state will be the last state in the U.S. to allow criminal defendants the choice.

Jeffrey Welty, a professor in UNC’s School of Government, released a report on the amendment earlier this month that he co-wrote with Komal K. Patel, a law student at the University of Virginia.

The report was designed as a guide to understsanding key aspects of the amendment. Welty said he hadn’t heard of the amendment until recently.

“And I thought that if I hadn’t heard of the amendment ... there were probably a bunch of people in the same boat,” he said.

Because few people have taken a strong position on the issue, Welty said, it has not gained much attention among the public.

In a Daily Tar Heel survey distributed via Facebook that garnered 33 responses from UNC students, two students said they had heard of the amendment and were aware they were voting on it in November.

The proposal passed the N.C. General Assembly nearly unanimously during the recently concluded short session, with one lawmaker, Rep. Michael Speciale , R-Beaufort, in opposition.

In an April statement on his website, Speciale said he opposes the amendment because it could be abused by the court to convict defendants with little knowledge of the legal process — and in some cases, it would eliminate the right for juries to propose abolishing laws.

In his report, Welty agreed that defendants could be pressured to waive their right to a jury.

He added that lawyers could start “judge shopping,” or trying to get a judge who usually rules favorably for the defendant to oversee a case.

Still, the amendment could eliminate costs and time involved with jury selection, Welty wrote.

Welty said the N.C. Supreme Court ruled on several occasions that the right to a choice between a judge and a jury is unconstitutional.

state@dailytarheel.com