The Stella awards!!! you gotta read this.

[Andromeda18_]

That is highly debatable.

I agree with you, that's highly debatable, to say the least. And I must say you see the whole jury thing from a very nice point of view. Personally I wouldn't want to be judged by a "jury of my peers" unless it was my last resort. That's a very pretty sentence isn't it? "A jury of my peers" The problem is those peers of mine will likely be influenced by their own biased and prejudiced opinions. Like you said, "Judges are trained to let their emotions and possible prior knowledge (example Michael Jackson case) to not influence their decission". Not to mention most people aren't too happy with jury duty (that's why there are so many websites on the net teaching how to get away from it), many verdicts are hastily decided just because they want to go home early.
There's no such thing as the perfect legal system but jury system certainly isn't the best, in my opinion.