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Requirement
"It (trial by jury) has been the bulwark of our liberties too long for any of us to seek to alter it. Whenever a man is on trial for serious crime... then trial by jury has no equal."(Lord Denning MR)
Assess the efficacy of jury trials in criminal cases. Is this faith in the role of the jury misguided? Prepare a research essay.
Solution
Abstract
This project contains an analysis of the Jury system existing in The English Legal System. It focuses on the Jury system by providing thorough detail about it and how it is used in proceedings of Criminal Cases of England. The project then analyses the Jury system critically by mentioning its various advantages and disadvantages as pointed out by research experts and pundits by mentioning its questionable usage and usage where it has been hailed as a perfect system.
Introduction
Jury System makes decisions on the basis of facts and there are twelve people involved in deciding the fate of criminal or civil events. Its history dates back to around 800 years ago when those time were referred to as dark ages. During that time the Jury investigated cases themselves and later the function of Jury in deciding cases were gradually reduced and under the present system the Jury is limited to only the factual matters, whereas it is the Judge who directs the Jury on legal matters for arriving at a particular conclusion. Any decision of Jury is accepted as valid if there is approval of at least 10 Jurors over a matter i.e. the majority required for a verdict to be accepted is 10-2. If the number of Jury falls down to 10, the verdict is accepted as valid at 9-1 majority. Following are the functions which Jury Performs (Law Teacher, 2003).
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Functions
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The jury has to take decision upon facts to determine if someone is to be convicted or acquitted.
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The jury decides a case solely on evidence and facts presented by the prosecution and the defendants.
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The jury brings certainty to the legal system by declaring a verdict and the decision of the jury is not questionable or disputable by anyone. It simply states if the accused is guilty or not without providing a reason.
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Jury has the authority to provide inputs on psychological basis and on social basis whereas the objectivity and rigidity of law cannot.
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Jury has to be neutral and impartial i.e. not biased.
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Jury has to be free of external or internal influence.
The Jury system in England decides only the Criminal Cases mostly although there are some Civil Cases in which a Jury trial may be needed depending upon circumstances but they are almost negligible. In England any case is first tried at magistrate court where the Jury is not involved. If a case is referred to Crown Court, then the Jury may decide the fate of the case. Criminal cases are of three types in England. They are Summary offences i.e. Minor Offences which involves crimes like minor traffic offences and they are tried strictly in the magistrate court. The second type of offence is “Indictable only” offences which must be tried by the Crown Court. Between these two types there exists a offence which can be tried either in the magistrate court or in the Crown Court. It is for the magistrates to decide if the offence should be tried in the magistrate court or the crown court. If both the magistrates and the defendants agree that the case may be decided in the magistrate court, then the case is decided in the magistrate court. Under this circumstance, the defendants can insist that the case be decided in the Crown Court i.e. the defendant has the authority ahead of magistrates to insist that the case be referred to the Crown Court. As per data, out of the total Criminal Cases, around 95% are decided in the magistrate court and in these the Jury has no role to play. Among the cases which are referred to the Crown Court i.e. 5%, only 1% is decided by the Jury and in the remaining 4%, the defendant either pleads guilty or the Judge directs the Jury to acquit the defendant as per the requirement of the law. The 1% cases in which the Jury decides the fate of the case contains almost 30000 cases and they are among the most serious Offence allegations. Governments have, in the past attempted to limit the influence of Jury by citing its disadvantages. The Jury trial generally incurs lots of expenses. Since 1977, many cases which fell under the legislation of Crown Court have been brought under the legislation of the magistrate court and they mostly include cases related to Summary Offences. The Criminal Justice Act of 2003 amended the Jury Act of 1974 by not allowing certain category of people to act as a Jury. These category include Judges, Police, members of the legal profession, probation officers, religious persons, mentally disordered persons, and clergy (Lynch, 2014-2015).
How Jury is Appointed
Under present system after amendment of 1974 Jury Act some people belonging to a certain category of profession were deemed ineligible to act as Jurors. Other than these categories of person every category of people can be appointed as Jurors. The basic criteria is that they have to be between 18 to 70 years of age and have to be resident of United Kingdom at least for 5 years since the age of 13. The probable Jurors are summoned randomly from the electoral register list and screened for the purpose and for every case 15 Jurors are selected finally where 12 act as the Jury and the other three are kept as substitute for replacement in case any Juror from the main list leaves the case midway for some valid reasons. For some cases which are expected to last longer upto 50 Jurors are appointed as most of the Jurors cannot continue for weeks or months. After selection the Jurors are to take oath as per the law and then they are presented before the prosecution and the defendant. The Jurors come to know about the case only after their appointment and it is mandatory for them to be neutral and not biased in favor of or against any cause. A person serving as a member of woman’s right commission cannot be elected as a Jury member for trial of Rape cases. Both the prosecution and defendant are to be taken into confidence regarding selection of Jury member. If either of them provides valid reason against any Juror or Jurors such as close relation with against party, biased for or against a cause related to the case; then the body of Jury has to be changed. In other words, both the parties must agree with the Jury Member undertaking the case. The Jury has to follow certain guidelines during the entire trial process. An estimated people of around 4, 50,000 act as Jurors every year for trying serious Criminal Offence Case as per the ministry of Justice reports. No Juror should have any relationship with either the defendant or prosecution. The candidates considered for the post of Jury members are examined carefully to look if they have any criminal case, their background are also investigated thoroughly to be remain assured that the Jury members are free of any criminal offences, they are neutral, and educated. If any objectionable past or present background is detected, then the person is not considered for the Jury. This is called Jury Vetting (Logan, 2013).
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Place Your OrderInfluence of Judge on Jury Members
As Jury members are not knowledgeable on legal matters, the basis of the Jury trial is that the Judge issues law and the Jury makes decisions on the facts. The judge can halt any prosecution case which it considers to be weak on the basis of law and ask the Jury to acquit. This particular thing questions the autonomy of Jury in decision making or verdict giving. Secondly, the judge assumes important responsibility in the form of assisting Jury to determine the facts related to the trial during the trial process. This power highlights the fact that the Judge actually holds power to intervene during the trial process and also that the Judge have the power to exercise comments over the facts which at last sums up at the end of the entire Judicial Proceeding. The Judges also hold some other powers through which they can influence the outcome of the Trial. In a complex Criminal Offences the Judges play important roles where the Jury is perceived to have faced difficulty in understanding the wide legal matters thereby influencing the outcome. The influence of the Judge is not limited to the above mentioned function only during the trial process, a judge can also discharge from duty any Jury member whom he/she feels not fit to serve as a Jury member under the 1974 Jury Act.
Jury's Way of Delivering Verdict
According to law, Jury should not function under the influence of any external pressure such as threats, bribery, intimidation and violence. A Jury also should not be heavily influenced by Judge during the course of trial. To, put it simply a Jury should operate freely. After weighing the facts related to the case, Jury can declare a verdict on 10-2 majority at minimum and in most of the cases unanimous verdict is expected. If the Jury is unable to reach at a verdict for more than two hours, the Judge holds power to allow them to declare a verdict based on majority. If the Jury goes down to 10 during the trial process then the verdict with a 9-1 majority is considered valid. Before they deliver their verdict, they retire to secrecy room for deliberation and discussion which they do in complete secret and then they come to a decision i.e. verdict. The Jury need not provide any reason or reveal any information to anybody for the verdict they announce. This makes it clear that the decision of Jury is free from influence and is sovereign. When they retire to the secret room, they cannot communicate with anybody except Judge and Court officer. If the Jury sends a note during deliberation to the Judge, he/she must reveal it to both the parties and reconvene without the Jury for inviting submissions on the matter. After that the Jury needs to be recalled and given directions related to the matter. Following are the advantages and disadvantages of Jury System.
Advantages of Jury System
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Jury system is represented by a large section of society as the Jurors are randomly selected and this depicts the society’s view.
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Jury system is said to be a wall of individual liberties.
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The facts are easily founded as it is mostly an application of common sense and no specialized training is required.
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The jury members’ opinion is not biased whereas a Judge may be biased towards any concept.
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Since it is unaccountable, it is totally independent.
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Jury system reflects the feelings about public feelings (Martin, 2013).
Disadvantages of Jury System
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Juries may not represent the societies as the randomly selected Jurors may not represent the entire society.
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The Jury is legally illiterate body and may be ineligible to weigh evidences of complex matters.
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The Jury system may not be suitable for trying criminal offences which are complex as the Juries are not aware of legal matters.
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There is a probability of Jury dominated by two or three individual Jurors taking out the advantage which is the primary one i.e. Neutral, impartial.
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The presence of Jury tempering is always possible.
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The Jury may be influenced indirectly by the Judge (Storey-White, 1997).
Critical Analysis of Jury System
Jury system despite its advantages and disadvantages has able to remain as the essence of the British Legal System. The system has been under constant criticism and has also undergone some amendments in 1977 and 2003 when most of the cases tried by the Jury previously were strictly brought under the control of the magistrate court. The reason for this was that the Jury System is an expensive affair and to keep Minor offences Case under the Jury System did not make logical sense. There also have been instances when Juries worked under the direct influence of the Judge as in RV Mc Kenna case where the Judge gave threat to the Jury that if the verdict is not returned they would have to face lock up for the whole night. In Comerford. R v [1998] CA case the prosecution was of the view that the defendant might influence the Jury members using their power and position and the Judge ordered that the Jurors be identified only by numbers, this shows that how the fear of Jury being influenced or nodded by either defendant or prosecution exists in the system and if measures such as the one taken here are taken, then the system’s legitimacy can definitely be questioned. The Jury trial becomes a complex one when the trial stretches longer, the Jurors may become disinterested in the matter of the Case and they may not be actively involved in the participation of the trial. The influence of Judge over Jury members as stated above shows that it is the Judge who actually commands control over most of the important matters of trial. It is also not possible to appoint all the Jurors strictly in line with the terms and conditions for appointing Jury members. Chances are high that one or two members selected would be found biased in favor of or against a cause concerned with the case (Thomas, 2010).
Conclusion
After having done the assignment one can find many loopholes in the Jury System but it cannot be denied that the system gives opportunity to every citizen for participating in the legal affairs of the country which goes very well in line with the democratic principles. This system gives opportunity to the citizen of the society to determine the case related to their society. Every citizen gets opportunity take part in the system and the process of selection of Jury looks very efficient in line with its actual motive. The influences of Judge in the Jury system are necessary as the Jury is not aware of the legal perspective of the matter and the Jury system is transparent where the verdict is hardly questionable in most of the cases.
References
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Law Teacher. (2003). Law Teacher. Retrieved 1 11, 2016, from http://www.lawteacher.ne: http://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/common-law/definition-of-the-jury-system-law-essays.php
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Logan, A. (2013). Women's history review. Building a new nad better order? Women and Jury service in England and Wales , 37-48.
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Lynch, G. E. (2014-2015). Our Administrative System of Criminal Justice. Our Administrative System of Criminal Justice , 38.
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Martin, J. (2013). The English Legal System. London: Hodder Education.
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Storey-White, K. (1997). KISSing the jury•- advantages and limitations of the 'keep it simple' principle in the presentation of expert evidence to courts and juries. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law , 39-48.
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Thomas, C. (2010). Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 1 11, 2016, from https://www.justice.gov.uk: https://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/research-and-analysis/moj-research/are-juries-fair-research.pdf
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