Juries in criminal cases
Notes:
Jury service
A member of a jury listens to evidence and decides on the guilt or innocence of a defendant in a Crown court trial. They are part of a group of 12 jury member chosen totally at random from the electoral register.
A jury member will receive a “summons” to do jury service which asks for detailed information about the citizen. This must be returned within 7 days. Jury service last for 10 working days. Trials last for on average between 2-3 days so jury members may sit on more than one case.
Jury service is unpaid. However jury members can claim for travel expenses, meals and loss of earnings. If the jury member does not turn up for jury service this will a criminal offence with a fine of upto £1000.
The rules governing who can qualify to be a jury member are contained in the Juries Act 1974.
Qualifications:
1. Jury members need no formal qualifications or legal qualifications.
2. Since the Criminal Justice Act 2003 judges, lawyers, police officers and doctors must also attend jury service.
3. A jury member must be aged 18-69.
4. Resident in UK, least 5 years since age 13 years.
Task: Read the attached article and write down:
1. How many people are called for jury service each year?
2. What is the proposed age limit for jury service?
3. Why are the government seeking this change to the law?
Disqualified:
Serious criminal convictions, e.g. If been in prison in the last 10 years.
Those on bail (Criminal Justice Act 2003).
Excusal:( off list for 1yr)
Right of excusal means you can legally decide not to sit as a jury member, e.g. military personnel and those that have sat on a jury in the last 2 years.
Discretionary excusal can be applied for by anyone and it is upto the Jury Central Summoning Bureau (JCSB) to decide if they accept the reason, e.g. holiday, busy work or breastfeeding mothers.
Ineligible:
A jury member must be deemed to have sufficient capacity to sit on a jury as stated in the Juries Act 1974. Most people with disabilities can be accommodated on jury service. However those who are currently detained under the Mental Health Act 2013 in hospital cannot sit on a jury. Deaf people are also classed as lacking capacity to sit on a jury as they will need someone to help them manage and interpret the evidence and proceedings, the so called 13th jury member.
Task: Read the following article and give two reasons as to why this may be a fair approach and two reasons that it may be unfair. Try this article as well.
Deferral:
A jury member can apply to put the jury service off for upto upto 12 months, e.g. sitting exams
Selection
The key point about the choosing (selection) of each jury member is that it is entirely random. This makes it as free from bias and prejudice as possible leading to the fairest outcome to each trial.
The Central Jury Summoning Bureau (CJSB) are the government organisation that are responsible for randomly finding jury members to sit in Crown courts, 45,000 in 2008. They do this by using the Electoral role of the area covered by each Crown court.
The jury member is sent a jury summons and a form to complete asking for:
· Criminal record
· Any issues over being ineligible
· Any requests for excusal or deferral.
The form is returned to the CJSB who will resolve any issues over disqualification, ineligibility, excusal or deferral.
Jury vetting:
If a jury member is known to have very bias political views then the CJSB can ask the police to check the juror’s background though this rare, e.g. BNP or Communist party. This has been challenged on the grounds of being an invasion of privacy but the Court of Appeal said that it is lawful in the case of R v McCann.
The CJSB then send the jury member a specific summons to attend court for 10 working days with a start date, normally a Monday.
Once at court the jury clerk will choose 15 jury members at random, known as the “jury in waiting”, who are then taken to the court that they will sit on. The jury member names are written on cards that are shuffled randomly to ensure a fair and unbias choice. Finally, 12 are chosen from the 15 jury members to form the jury. If the case will last longer than the 10 days of jury service they will be given the option not to sit on this particular trial.
Challenging a jury or jury member:
1. Against entire jury for biased or unrepresentative selection either by the P or D: As seen in 1993: the "Romford" jury were excused because 9 out of the 12 came from Romford, with 2 living in the same street.
2. Against an individual juror for cause by P or D: The challenging part must give a valid reason e.g. juror is disqualified or knows, (is related to) the defendant or a witness.
3. By prosecution only: "stand by " juror : a right which enables such jurors to be put to the end of the list of potential jurors at court, and only used if there are not enough other jurors. This right should be used sparingly.
All such challenges go against the idea of random selection. However, even the current process of random selection does not necessarily provide a cross-section of society. (As seen in the "Romford" jury case above).
NOTE: There is no right to "hand-pick" the jury: R v Ford (1989) held there is no right to a multi-racial jury as long as jury chosen totally at random. This also applies to juries all of one gender.
4