IELTS Writing: Should the jury get access to the defendant's past criminal record?

fair, unbiased judgement

Making a verdict is truly a tough thing to fufill, especially for the jury. In the practical case, for instance, in Britain and Australia, the judge panel does not have the right to get approach to the defendants' past criminal record. However, this action does not get the approval from some lawyers. From my perspective, this issue is still controversial.

The reasons behind hiding the defendants' past criminal record can be seen as reasonable according to two factors. First and foremost, the practice of acknowledging the act of crime of defendant could affect the arbitrator's concept. For some reasons, it could lead the jury to a prejudice that this person used to be a criminal and they get back to the drawing board is undeniably acceptable since it could be because of their natural trait. With that misconception, to make the matter worse, the sentence given to the defendant could be severe without a proper and further investigation. Secondly, that past criminal record could make the defense less convincing and persuasive. That record has imposed an ugly impression on the defendant so that not only the jury but also the attendants would question about all the excuses and definitely give less trust on the defendant.

On the other hand, the change in this pratice should be applicable thanks to these following aspects. Initially, getting access to the defendants' past criminal record could help the jury have a broaden view on that defendant to consider whether that person has a good characteristic or not based on the severity of their crime. With respect to the fairness, the defendant would not encounter with unjustified jugdement just because of some minor mistakes in the past. More importantly, with the help of past fatcs, it could open more directions in solving the case which is vital in case of they get stuck in the investigation.

In conclusion, regarding all the arguments above, it is advisable that the jury should have the access to the past criminal of defendant in terms of having a fair or neutral settlement in the future without wrongful conviction

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Ngo, Let's start with the response errors that you made. For starters, you are not properly paraphrasing the given prompt. Neither are you presenting a proper response to the discussion instruction. The basic error can be seen as follows:

Original Prompt: Do you agree or disagree?

Your Response: From my perspective, this issue is still controversial.

Your response should have only been either agree or disagree. Your written response does not respond to the question provided at all. In relation to that, the correct prompt paraphrase would have been similar to:

The criminal record of the accused in Britain or Australia is sealed. This is done to prevent any undue influence on the jury. Due to certain important data coming from the existing record of the accused, some legal minds are pushing for the jury to have access to this particular record before coming to a decision. I an in agreement with this belief due to several considerations.

As a single opinion essay, your dual point of view discussion is out of place. An essay is only dual discussion based if the instruction says "Discuss both points of view..." The only reference to be made in the discussion / reasoning paragraphs should only cover the reasoning that you support with ample examples as to why your opinion is the correct one. This essay will be deemed only partially responsive to the prompt, even though your TA score will fail due to an improper response to the instruction sentence.