juries

Question 1

How long have juries been used in the legal system?

Answer 1

Juries have been used in the legal system for over 1000 years. Originally they were used for providing local knowledge and information and acted more as witnesses than decision – makers. By the middle of the 15th Century, juries had become independent assessors and assumed their modern role as deciders of fact.

Question 2

What jury precedent was set in the Bushell Case (1670)?

Answer 2

Jurors could not be punished for their verdict - this was after a court fined and imprisoned jurors for disagreeing with them. The jurors were released by the Court of Appeal.

Question 3

What types of cases are heard by a crown court?
What is the role of the jury in a Crown Court?
Number of jury members Crown Court?

Answer 3

• Serious Criminal Cases: e.g. murder, manslaughter, rape.
• Decide the verdict - Guilty or Not Guilty
• 12

Question 4

What type of cases are heard by a High Court?
What is the role of the jury in a High Court?
How many jurors sit in a High Court case?

Answer 4

• Defamation, False Imprisonment, Malicious prosecution and any case alleging fraud
• Decide Liability. If fined for the claimant also decide amount of damages.
• 12

Question 5

What type of cases are heard by a County Court?
What is the role of the jury in a County Court?
How many juror’s sit in a county court case?

Answer 5

• Defamation, False Imprisonment, Malicious prosecution and any case alleging fraud.
• Decide Liability. If fined for the claimant also decide amount of damages.
• 8

Question 6

What type of cases are heard by a Coroner’s Court?
What is the role of the jury in a Coroner’s Court?
How many jurors sit on a Coroner’s Court case?

Answer 6

• Deaths: In Prison, In police custody, *Through an industrial accident, where health and safety of public is involved.
• Decide Cause of death
• 7 - 11

Question 7

What percentage of all criminal cases are tried by a jury?

Answer 7

Less than 1% -
97% of criminal trials are dealt with in the Magistrates’ Court and of the cases that go to the Crown Court about 2 out of every 3 defendants plead guilty.

Question 8

What is the dual role of a juror in a civil case?

Answer 8

They decide whether the claimant has proved his case or not, then, if they decide that the claimant has won the case and any damages payable.

Question 9

A coroner is no longer obliged to summon a jury for deaths involving what?

Answer 9

Road accidents or suspected homicide. In these cases it is up to the judges discretion whether to use a jury.

Question 10

What were all jurors required to have to sit on a jury Prior to the Criminal Justice Act?

Answer 10

A property. Qualification to be a juror requires someone to be the owner or tenant of a dwelling. This meant that women and young people were less likely to own or rent property and were prevented from serving on a jury.

Question 11

What year was the Criminal Justice Act? And how did it widen jury participants?

Answer 11

• 1972
• The Criminal Justice Act widened the qualification required to sit on a jury based on the right to vote.

Question 12

The present qualifications are set out in the Juries Act 1974. Can you name them?

Answer 12

• Aged between 18 and 70
• Registered to vote – as a parliamentary or local government elector
• Resident in the UK, Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for at least 5 years since their Thirteenth birthday

Question 13

What two things disqualify you from sitting on a jury?

Answer 13

• A mentally disordered person, or
• Disqualified from jury service

Question 14

What would disqualify someone sitting on a jury for 10 years?

Answer 14

• At any time in the last 10 years served a sentence of imprisonment
• At any time in the last 10 years had a suspended sentence passed on them
• At any time in the last 10 years had a community order or other community sentence passed on them.
  Anyone who is currently on bail in criminal proceeding is disqualified from sitting as a juror. If a disqualified person fails to disclose that fact and turns up for jury service, they may be fined up to £5000.
  Also disqualified are deaf people due to the fact that a translator would be needed and a 13th person is not allowed in the Jurors room while they make a decision as this is a contempt of court.

Question 15

Can you name the reasons why someone can be permanently disqualified from sitting on a jury?

Answer 15

• Imprisonment for life, detention for life or custody for life
• Detention during Her Majesty’s pleasure or during the pleasure of the Secretary of State
• To imprisonment for public protection or detention for public protection
• An extended sentence
• A term of imprisonment of 5 years or more or a term of detention of 5 years or more.

Question 16

Can you be excused from Jury service?

Answer 16

YES.
* Prior to April 2004 people in certain essential occupations such as doctors and pharmacists had a right to be excused from jury service if they did not want to do it.
* The Criminal Justice Act 2003 abolished this category.
* Other people who had the right to excusal were lawyers, judges, police officers etc. They are no longer able to refuse to do jury service but they can apply for discretionary excusal.

Question 17

What do you understand by the term ‘Discretionary Excusal’ from jury service.

Answer 17

• Anyone can ask to be excused or for their period of service to be put back to a later date.
• The court has discretion to grant such an excusal but will only do so if there is a sufficiently good reason.
  1. being too ill to attend
  2.suffering from a disability that makes it impossible for the person to sit as a juror
  3. A mother with a small baby.

Question 18

What is the penalty if you miss jury service without a discretionary excusal?

Answer 18

If a person is not excused from jury service they must attend on the date set or they may be fined up to £1000 for non-attendance.

Question 19

Describe how jurors are selected in a Crown Court?

Answer 19

• At each Crown Court an official is responsible for summonsing enough jurors to try the cases that will be heard in each 2 week period.
• This official will arrange for names to be selected at random from the electoral registers - computer selection at a central office.
• It is necessary to summon more than 12 jurors as most courts have more than one court room and it will not be known how many of those summonsed are disqualified – or will be excused.
• In bigger courts up to 150 summonses may be sent out each fortnight

Question 20

When would jurors be vetted?
‘vetted’ – checked for suitability by routine police checks or by a wider check of the juror’s background.

Answer 20

• Vetting should only be used in exceptional cases involving national security or terrorist cases.
• vetting can only be carried out with the Attorney-General’s express permission.

Question 21

If you get selected to sit on a jury will you always hear a case?

Answer 21

NO.
The jurors are usually divided into groups of 15 and allocated to a court. At the start of the trial the court clerk will select 12 out of these 15 at random.

Question 22

What is meant by the term ‘Praying a talesman’?

Answer 22

If there are not enough jurors to hear all cases scheduled for that day at the court there is a special power to select anyone who is qualified to be a juror from people passing by in the streets or from local offices or businesses. This is called ‘Praying a talesman’. It is very rare but was used at Middlesex Crown Court in January 1992 when about half the jury panel failed to turn up after the New Year’s holiday and there were not sufficient jurors to try the case.

Question 23

Before the jury is sworn in there are 2 challenges the defence and prosecution can make to jurors can you name them?

Answer 23

1. For Cause
   * The challenge must point out a valid reason why the juror should not serve. An obvious reason would be that a juror is disqualified but a challenge for cause can also be made if the juror knows or is related to a witness or defendant.
   In R v Wilson. and R v Sprason (1995) the wife of a prison officer was summoned for jury service.
2. To the array
   * This right to challenge is given by section 5 of the Juries Act 1974 and it is a challenge to the whole jury on the basis that it has been chosen in an unrepresentative or biased.
   Fraser (1987) this was used because the defendant was of an ethnic minority and all the jurors were white. The judge in this case agreed to empanel another jury.

Question 24

The prosecution only have a another right when it comes to juries, can you name it?

Answer 24

Prosecution right to ‘Stand by Jurors’
* This allows the juror who has been stood by to be put to the end of the list of potential jurors.
* They will therefore, not be used on the jury unless there are not enough jurors.
* The prosecution does not have to give a reason for ‘standing by’.
* The Attorney Generals guidelines issued in 1988 make it clear that this power should be used sparingly.

Question 25

Describe the roles of jury in a criminal case.

Answer 25

• The judge decides points of law and the jury decides on the facts.
• At the end of the trial the jury retire to a private room and make the decision on the guilt or innocence of the accused in secret.
• Initially the jury must try to come to a unanimous verdict (they all agree).
• If after at least 2 hours they cannot reach a unanimous verdict the judge can call them back to the courtroom and direct them that he now accepts a majority verdict.
• Where the jury convict a defendant on a majority verdict, the foreman of the jury must announce the numbers both agreeing and disagreeing with the verdict in open court.

Question 26

How does a judge direct the jury?

Answer 26

• The judge decides points of law and the jury decides the facts.
• At the end of the prosecution case the judge has the power to direct the jury to acquit the defendant if he decides that in law the prosecution’s evidence has not made out a case against the defendant. This is called a directed acquittal and occurs in about 10% of cases.
• If the trial continues the judge will sum up the case at the end, to the jury and direct them on any law involved.
• The judge must accept the jury verdict even if he or she does not agree with it – this long established principle goes back to Bushell’s Case (1670). The jury do not give any reasons for their decision.

Question 27

Explain how a majority verdict works depending on the number of jurors.

Answer 27

Where there is a full jury of 12 the verdict can be 10-2 or 11-1 for either guilty or not guilty. If there are 11 jurors the verdict can be 10-1, if there are 10 jurors it can be 9-1. If there are only 9 jurors the verdict must be unanimous. A jury cannot go below nine.

Question 28

What are the criticisms of trial by jury?

Answer 28

• Use of the electoral register does not always give a representative sample of the population. It excludes some people such as the homeless
• Multi-racial juries – no guarantee of ethnic mix
  R v Ford (1989) there is no power for the judge to empanel a multi-racial jury. Ethnic minorities were severely under-represented on juries.
• Disqualified jurors - many disqualified people fail to disclose this fact and sit on juries.
• Excusals – if there are too many discretionary excusals it may lead to an unrepresentative jury.
• Prosecution’s right of ‘stand by’ – the prosecution’s right of stand-by was kept even when the defense’s peremptory challenge was withdrawn. This might be seen as giving the prosecution an advantage in ‘rigging’ the jury, particularly when combined with ‘vetting’.

Question 29

What does Section 8 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 make a criminal offense?

Answer 29

Section 8 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 makes disclosure of anything that happened in the jury room a contempt of court which is a criminal offence. This section was brought in because newspapers were paying jurors large sums of money for ‘their story’.

Question 30

Advantages of Jury Trial

Answer 30

1. Public confidence - the jury is considered as one of the fundamentals of a democratic society.
   Lord Devlin - ‘the lamp that shows that freedom lives’.
2. Jury Equity – as juries are not legal experts, are not bound to follow the precedent of past cases or even Acts of Parliament, and do not have to give reasons for their verdict it is possible for them to decide cases on their idea of ‘fairness’. This is referred to as jury equity
3. Open system of justice – the use of a jury is viewed as making the legal system more open. Justice is seen to be done as members of the public are involved in a key role and the whole process is public. It also helps to keep the law clearer as points have to be explained to the jury.
4. Secrecy of the jury room – the jury are free from pressure in their discussion and are protected from outside influences when deciding on the verdict.
5. Impartiality – a jury should be impartial as they are not connected to anyone in the case.
6. A jury is not case hardened since they only sit for 2 weeks and are unlikely to try more than three or four

Question 31

Disadvantages of jury trial

Answer 31

• Perverse decisions
• Secrecy
• Racial bias
• Media Influence
• Jurors lack of understanding
• Fraud trials have complex accounts -
• High acquittal rates
• Jurors may be against the whole system of jury service as it is fairly unpopular.
• Jury service can be a strain especially where jurors have to listen to horrific evidence
• Jury ‘nobbling’
• The use of juries makes trials slow and expensive.

Question 32

What do you understand by the term ‘Perverse Decision’?

Answer 32

• Perverse decisions – the jury can ignore an unjust law however this type of decision can be seen as perverse and one which was not justified.

R v Randle and Pottle (1991) the defendants were charged with helping the spy George Blake to escape from prison. Their prosecution did not occur until 25 years after the escape, when they wrote about what they had done and the jury acquitted them, possibly as a protest over the time lapse between the offence and the prosecution. Their decision did not follow the law.

Question 33

Expand on why high acquittal rates cause criticism of juries.

Answer 33

High acquittal rates – juries are criticized because they acquit too many defendants. 60% of those that plead not guilty at the Crown Court are acquitted.

Question 34

How could the media influence a jury?

Answer 34

This is a concern for lawyers, they cannot stop jurors looking up cases. However, there is no current data to suggest the effect this has. The general consensus appears to be that more research is needed.

Question 35

List potential problems with using juries in civil cases.

Answer 35

• Amount of damages – awards vary greatly as each jury has its ideas and does not follow past cases making it difficult for lawyers to advice on settlements.
• Unreasoned decision – the jury does not have to give a reason either for its decision or for the amount it awards.
• Bias – If the claimants and/or the defendants are public figures, jurors may know and possibly hold views about them. Alternatively, the defendant in a defamation case is often a newspaper and jurors may be biased against the press or may feel that ‘they can afford to pay’
• Cost – civil cases are expensive and the use of a jury adds to this as the case is likely to last longer.

Question 36

Trial by a single judge - when might it be used and pros and cons

Answer 36

Trial by single judge:
* The method of trial in the majority of civil cases which is generally regarded as producing a fairer and more predictable result.

• Useful in special circumstances like Northern Ireland (Diplock courts) when threats against jurors had the potential to skew jury decisions.
• Public confidence in the use of judges to decide all serious criminal cases because judges may become case hardened and prosecution-minded.

Question 37

What are the alternatives to trial by jury?

Answer 37

1. Trial by single judge:
2. A panel of judges
3. A judge plus lay assessors
4. A mini-jury
   * If the jury is to remain then it might be possible to have a smaller number of jurors.
   * In many continental countries the jury has only 9 members.
   * Alternatively a jury of 6 could be used for less serious criminal cases that at the moment have a full jury trial as occurs in some American States.

Question 38

A Panel of Judges - when is it used and Pros and cons?

Answer 38

A panel of judges
* Some countries try cases using a panel of three or five judges sitting together. This allows for a balance of views instead of the verdict of one person
* However it still leaves the problems of judges becoming case-hardened and prosecution minded and coming from an elite background.
* There are not sufficient judges and our system of legal training and appointment would need a radical overhaul to implement this proposal.
* It would also be expensive

Question 39

Judge plus lay assessors - when is it used and pros and cons.

Answer 39

A judge plus lay assessors
* Under this system the judge and two lay assessors would make the decision together.
* This is used in Scandinavian countries and provides the legal expertise and the lay participation in the legal system by ordinary members of the public.
* The lay people could be drawn from the general public in the same way as selecting juries or a special panel of assessors could be drawn up as in tribunal cases.
* Con - Limited legal knowledge: Lay persons in the criminal justice system, including lay magistrates and jury members, typically do not have formal legal training. They may have limited knowledge of complex legal principles, rules of evidence, or procedural nuances

Question 40

Mini jury - when is it used and pros and cons.

Answer 40

A mini-jury
* If the jury is to remain then it might be possible to have a smaller number of jurors.
* In many European countries the jury has only 9 members.
* Alternatively a jury of 6 could be used for less serious criminal cases that at the moment have a full jury trial as occurs in some American State.
* This would reduce the cost
* The same issues with any jury selection