With two very serious very public trials having ended with the acquittal of the defendants, verdicts which will be questioned to say the least, surely it is time for there to be academic research into the functioning of the jury system in the 21st century? With very loose controls on the eligibility for jury service and an education system such that many employers are in despair, if public confidence in the jury system is to be retained we must be certain that the guilt finding process is understood and applied by those chosen for this fundamental civic duty.
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- 20. Jul. 2012. @ 16:58:33
Juries may be more inclined to convict where the inditement reflects the level of mens rea and where no other risk factors were known to the defendant. PC Harwood may have been found guilty of ABH, for example; manslaughter may have seen unjust given the fragile nature of the victims health. Can juries suggest they decree on lesser offences?
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- 21. Jul. 2012. @ 07:39:25
Surely there was never much chance of a guilty verdict in Harwood's case. Any observant juror would have known of Harwood's past but quite rightly ignored it - that is what the rules say. There were many problems with this case but jurors were not top of the list. One can only hope a civil case is better managed.
Perhaps the UK would do better to scrap our adversarial system, import a European legal code - Germany's say - and move to an inquisitorial system.
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