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Evaluation of Juries - Coggle Diagram
Evaluation of Juries
Disadvantages
Distress to jury members
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Recognised in the trials of Rosemary West and Jamie Bulger when the jurors were offered counselling afterwards
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Cost and time
CC costs £7,400 a day and MC costs £1,000
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Jury equity - the jury can ignore an unjust law leads to a perverse decision and one which is not justified
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Media influence - may influence the jury, especially in high profile cases
Cps made a public announcement during the Steve Wright trial, charged with the murder of 5 prostitutes - press must be careful in further coverage
R v Taylor and Taylor - sisters charged with murder - snapshot of video was published, convictions were quashed
Lack of competence
Lord Denning - the selection of jurors is too wide and results in people who are not competent performing the tasks
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In the Vicky Price case the jurors sent 10 questions s to the judge demonstrating they had not fully understood the basic concept of a jury trial
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Technological advances - information is more accessible, difficult to monitor because of the secrecy applied in the jury room
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Jury nobbling - interference with the jury either in forms of threat, intimidation and bribery
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Twomey - gang after 2 trials would cost too much was the first case in 400 years to be done like this
Advantages
Public participation - juries allow the ordinary citizen to take part in the administration of justice
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Reform of the Jury
Serious Fraud Trials
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Impacted by illness, holidays and paternity leave among the juries and lawyers
Rayment and Others 2005 - collapse of the trial of 6 men accused of fraud relating to the awarding of contracts in the construction of the London Underground
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Abolishing Juries
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Government’s 1998 Consultation Paper on the criminal justice system - 4 possible options for serious fraud trials
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Retain jury trials but restrict jury roles to deciding questions of dishonesty and the judge would decide other matters
Abolishing juries in these trials, replacing them with specifically trained single judge and 2 lay people with expertise - Sir Robin Auld favoured this
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Alternatives to Jury
A panel of judges
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Allows a balance of views, still leaves the decision in the hands of the judges
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Trial by a single judge
This happens in most civil cases, generally regarded as producing a fairer and more predictable result
Used in NI for some criminal cases - called Diplock courts and were brought in following Lord Diplock’s recommendation to replace the jury due to jury nobbling and threats
Less public confidence in this approach as judges can become case hardened and prosecution minded no awareness of D’s background
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