Jury ruling

[spidah_2012]

Conviction overturned as a lawyer was on the jury

Wow. I'm a bit shocked at the decision after having to learn last year about all the recent reforms as regards eligibility and exemption from jury service. I'll be interested to read this one. How very sad of me ... !

Comments

[mrslant]

That should have been obvious from the start. In fact it was obvious to everyone except the politicians. Would a reasonable person perceive a real danger of bias in having a police officer or Crown Prosecutor sitting on the jury in a case brought by the police and Crown Prosecution Service? Well, yes... no?

It's not because he's a lawyer: presumably it wouldn't be held a problem for a copper or CPS lawyer to sit on, say, a Customs case. Though personally I think it should be. The old rules were perfectly sensible: no cops or lawyers on juries. They're not independent of the system.

[spidah_2012]

I totally agree and yes, the old rules make logical sense. I was just so surprised that the decision went the way it did given parliaments recent interventions (and also the reason why I want to read it - to hear the exact reasoning behind it, god, I am sad!).

It does beg the question though as to where the line is drawn however - professionals interests, personal ones (e.g. a known white spurpremacist sitting on a jury for someone accused of a race hate crime), should they be taken into consideration. And if so, should we just move to the American-style system of jury selection?

[mrslant]

It would help if we didn't have the dumbass law whereby no one's allowed to ask jurors about the reasons for their decisions. We thus have no idea how they've been reached. In the US the press interview jurors after trials, and the sky hasn't fallen on their heads. After all, if the jury have reached their verdict properly, there's no harm in knowing that, and if they haven't we should know so something can be done about it.

As for where the line should be drawn, it's the same as for judges - would a reasonable person perceive a real danger of bias? Juries are subject to the same requirement as judges to be an "independent and impartial tribunal" under the ECHR. And we should bring back proper rights to challenge jurors too.