Any legal historians? Why aren't petty juries allowed to ask questions of the witnesses?

[Recursion]

That seems like it could be a good thing to allow.

[COLGATE4]

1. In some states they are. nt

[TorchTheWitch]

2. in AZ and very few other states they can

That was one thing I really liked about the Jodi Arias trial. The jury was allowed to submit questions to each witness anonymously, and the judge would address those questions to the witness to answer. It was really cool to see what the jury was thinking. It was noticeable that certain jury questions in the Arias trial were cleverly being snarky toward witnesses thereby showing their thoughts about a witness's testimony.

There's both good and bad about it though. By the jury being able to ask questions of each witness it alerts the attorneys of both sides and enables them to monitor their strategy. Overall though, I think it's something beneficial and should be something every state allows.