Abstract
In this work we analyze the affectations suffered by lay judges during the production of sentences in the jury courts. The corpus of this article consisted of sixty semi-structured interviews granted by jurors of the two jury courts in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil, carried out between 2015 and 2019. Among the research findings, the silencing of the jurors, due to the power relationships. established between them, through the distinction between lay, neophyte and professional judges, and forensic practitioners. The participation of civil society collides with the reproduction of social practices perpetuated in the field of legal decisions engendered by fear, shame and feelings of friendship, often forged among lay judges, and those in relation to forensic practitioners.
Keywords:
lay judges; Jury Courts; rationality; emotions; power