Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The End Of Trial By Jury?

There is yet another attack on our freedoms and liberty with a study commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, reported here, into trial by jury.

The Ministry of Justice study, based on 69,000 jury verdicts conducted over the past 18 months, found men were less likely than women to listen to arguments and change their mind when they hear evidence.

The study, carried out by Prof Cheryl Thomas, from University College London, found that juries in rape cases convict more often than they acquit.

Based on almost 552,000 charges and interviews with nearly 800 jurors, it is expected to lead to an overhaul of the criminal justice system.


In reality this is the precursor to politically correct tampering with the jury system, if not its complete abolition. The study is effectively saying that juries are made up of different people, in different areas, from different backgronds so is therefore wrong and needs reforming. But they put in couched terms such as:

The study, published on Wednesday, found that Crown Court convictions rates were a postcode lottery.


The point is that a jury is a complete lottery with random selection, that is its strength and its indepoendence. If juries regularly go against the directions of a judge, isn't that also the point? That the people can decide the judiciary are wrong? That the people rule supreme? Not in our ever tightening police state it seems.

This report effectively says, yet again, that the people are nitwits, the state knows best so you lot can bugger off. How very New Labour/New Conservative.

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