Yes... I see the need for "peers".. not judges etc subject to corruption, voter appeasing pressure.
I do mean the Peer group being the general pool... volunteers selected from withing that peer group.. still a LARGE group so that they dont have to be serving on jury full time.. maybe called on just a few times over several years.... back to their regular lives and day-job outside jury duty....just a LARGE sample selected from peers... trained/instructed peers.
What I propose is not totally different from what we have now. You just don't bother with people who really don't WANT to be on a jury and/or those who simply don't have the smarts, or the training or knowledge or ethics to deliberate properly.