All nations within the Anglosphere (US, UK, CA, AU & NZ) have JD imposed towards citizens. I know that the US & Canada both inherited that from Britain, which explains why they have it. However, should it be entirely only the judge making the conviction (some countries operate on a lay-judge system meaning juries aren’t used, such as Finland or Japan for example) rather than leaving that decision up to jurors?
While I agree, jury duty can also be extremely damaging psychologically to the random people picked for it. It’s kind of a weird thing to think about that I’m just hanging out and one day could get forced into hearing gory details of a fucked up crime that will give me PTSD just because it is my civic duty. (I know most cases are not this, but is it worth it?)
Tbh it’s really not that hard to get out of jury duty. If all else fails, just start handing out zines about juror nullification, they’ll ask you to leave.
You can conscientiously object, you are not forced to go through it if you are not psychologically able to.