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The Jury - Coggle Diagram
The Jury
Advantages
Public Confidence:
- Per Lord Devlin "the jury is the lamp that shows that freedom lives".
Jury Equity:
- Jurors are not bound by precedent
- R v Owen: A truck driver was found guilty of drunk driving and causing death to Mr. Owen's son. When the truck driver was released from prison, Mr. Owen became aware that he was continuing to drive recklessly where he shot him. Mr. Owen was acquitted from any wrongdoing by jury
Open systems of Justice:
- Legal system is seen as being more open
Secrecy of Jury Deliberations:
- The jury is protected from pressure and outside influences when deciding their verdict
Impartiality:
- Juries are randomly selected and represent a cross-section of a society as a whole
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Disadvantages
Racial Mix of the Jury:
- Use of electoral register does not always give a representative sample of population. Some young people and members of ethnic minorities may not register to vote
R v Ford (1989):
- The trial judge refused to accept D's application for a racially mixed jury was supported by the CA on reasons that "fairness is achieved by principle of random selection". To insist on a racially balanced jury would be to interfere with that principle
Racial Bias:
- No right for an accused who belongs to a racial minority to have a member of that minority on the jury
- According to the Lammy Report, it is found that judicial discrimination is particularly directed towards black court users, which can lead to unfairness
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Jury can decide without having to give reasons:
- Possible breach of Art 6 Of the European Convention of Human Rights
- Jurors inability to understand complex cases
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Selection of Juries
- Juries are selected from the electoral register maintained by local authorities
- This is done to ensure a random selection of jurors
- Crown Courts usually send out between 150-200 every fortnight to ensure sufficient amounts of jurors for each 2-week period
Per Lord Denning in R v Sheffield Crown Court, ex parte Brownlow (1980):
- "12 persons randomly selected are likely to be a cross-section of the people as a whole, and thus represent the view of the common man".
- Basic idea is that 12 jurors must be randomly selected and must include a representation of the population as whole as possible
- Before 1972, there's a requirement that only those who owned a home worth a certain value is eligible for jury service. Now, the eligibility to serve as jury now only corresponds with the rights to vote
Pursuant to the Juries Act 1974, as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 2003:
- Aged 18-75
- On the electoral register
- Resident int he UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man for at least 5 years since the age of 13
- Not mentally disordered
- Not disqualified from jury service
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The role of the jury
Role of the jury
For criminal cases:
- They decide the questions of fact in the case - essentially "what happened". The question of law - "what does the law require" - will be resolved by the judge
- Judge directs the jury on the applicable in the process of "summing up" and then the jury will decide on a verdict by applying the law to the facts
- If the jury returns a verdict of guilty, the judge will decide on the appropriate sentence
- If the jury returns a verdict of not guilty, judge records an order of acquittal and the accused is released
For civil cases:
- Jury can be asked to decide on how much money should be awarded as compensation (damages)
- Jury is thus said to secure the element of public participation in the justice system
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Deciding by majority
- Majority decisions must be by a margin of at least 10-1, or 9-1 in a case where there are 10 jurors
- If the jury reaches a verdict of not guilty by a majority, there is no need to state the number of those who agreed/disagreed
- Under s.17(3) of the Juries Act 1974, if a jury reaches a guilty verdict by majority, the foreman must state in open court how many jurors agreed/disagreed with the verdict (but it remains anonymous)
- Compliance with s.17(3) is mandatory and failure to comply can cause a conviction to be set aside on appeal (R v Barry 1975)
General features
- Used in criminal trials in the Crown Court
- Composed of 12 adults whose primary task is to decide the issues of fact that arise in the trial
- Issues of law are decided by the judge, give gives direction to jury and at the end the jury will sum up the issues and decide its verdict
- Judge can direct jury to acquit but cannot direct a jury to convict
- Juries don't have to give reasons for their decisions
- Give an objective point of view of things, they represent the accused. Juries can relate to you
- A judge can try a case in the Crown Court alone if there is a serious risk for jury tampering (s.44 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003)
- Jury trial is at the discretion of the court (besides malicious prosecution/false imprisonment & fraud)
- Individual jurors can be released during a trial if they are incapable of continuing to act due to illness (s.16(1), Juries Act 1974)
History
- Imported to England by the Norman Conquest of 1066
- Magna Carta (1215) provides for the right of man to be punished only after "the lawful judgement of his equals"
- The condemnation of trials by ordeal by Pope Innocent II in 1215 also helped raise the importance of jury trials
Per Lord Devlin in writing 1956:
- "Trial by jury is more than an instrument of justice and more than one wheel of the constitution; it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives"
- But today only a minority of cases are tried by the jury
- Jury trials are governed by the Juries Act 1974