Juries Flashcards
What are the qualifications required for the jury service?
In order to receive a jury summons a person must be
- 18-75 years old
- Registered on the electoral register.
- Resident in UK for 5 years from age 13
Why can a someone not be qualified to be jury?
Not eligible if:
- Have a mental disorder
Disqualified if:
- On bail
- Served 5 or more years in prison
- Been in prison for public protection
Cannot serve for 10 years after serving:
- Suspended sentence
- Community order
- Any time in prison
Explain deferral?
Anyone can apply to defer (delay) their jury service. They will then carry out their jury service in the next twelve months
A deferral needs to be for good reason- exams, operation, or pre booked holidays
What does excusal mean?
A person can be excused from jury service for 12 months. This effectively means that the person requires a further random selection before he is summonsed again. It is only available in expectational circumstances.
An excusal may be possible if a person has already served in the previous 2 years, is a full time member of the Armed Forces, or a member of parliament
What is the selection process?
1) Each person will receive a summons through the post. This is a random selection from names on the electoral register.
2) Anyone who cannot attend must tell the court and give a reason. When jury’s arrive they go into a room where they have their identity confirmed. They watch a DVD where which explains what happens in a court room.
3) When the court is ready for a jury they randomly chose 15 people from the assembly room.
4) Then 12 people are randomly chosen from the 15 chosen people and are sworn in.
What is jury vetting?
Once the list of potential jurors is known, both the prosecution and the defence have the right to see that list. In some cases, it may be decided that this pool of potential jurors should be vetted which means checked for suitability.
What are the 2 types of vetting ?
Police checks - routine police checks are made on prospective jurors to eliminate those disqualified.
R v Mason (1980) checks are carried out to ensure that no one is disqualified
Juror’s background - a wider check is made on a juror’s background and political affiliations. This is permitted only in exceptional cases involving:
National security where part of the evidence is likely to be given in-camera.
Terrorist cases
Vetting can only be carried out with the Attorney General’s express permission.
What are the challenges?
Once the court clerk has selected the panel of 12 jurors, these jurors come into the jury box to be sworn in as jurors. At this point, both the prosecution and the defence have certain rights to challenge one or more of the jurors. These are:
(i) To the array – s. 5 of the Juries Act 1974 gives the right to challenge the whole jury on the basis that it has been chosen in an unrepresentative way.
R v Ford (1989) - A challenge to the array was used. It was held that if the jury was chosen in a random manner then it could not be challenged simply because it was not multi-racial.
(ii) For cause – challenging the right of an individual juror to sit on the jury. There must be a valid reason, e.g. the juror is disqualified, the juror knows or is related to a witness or the defendant.
(iii) Prosecution right to stand by jurors – this allows the prosecution to put a juror to the end of the list of potential jurors, so that he will not be used on the jury unless there are not enough jurors. The prosecution doesn’t have to give a reason for “standing by”, but the Attorney General’s guidelines state that this power should be used sparingly.
Discharge of the jury
The trial judge may discharge the whole jury if certain irregularities occur. This could include the situation where the defendant’s previous convictions were mentioned in court. Individual jurors may be discharged if found incapable of acting through illness or any other reason such as knowing anyone in the case.
