Law Weblog

Trials without juries ‘must be last resort’

Sunday 25 July 2010 at 8:05 am | In News | Post Comment The Lord Chief Justice has ruled that trials without juries should be only used as a “last resort” in serious criminal cases; and then only where “a real and present danger” of jury tampering was certain.

This effectively makes trials without juries exceptional, unless a judge discharges a jury during a trial (for example because there has been jury tampering), he can then deliver a verdict on his own.

There has been only one such trial without a jury since 1641, four armed robbers were jailed in March 2010, after jury tampering at a previous trial,

The appeals heard this week were against pre-trial rulings of Crown Court judges, so these trials will go ahead with juries, despite fears from the judges that there were “real and present dangers” of jury tampering.

Jury trial is a fundamental constitutional right and its origins can be seen in the Magna Carta in 1215, but jury trials did not start then.
However, the right was limited by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to allow non-jury trials where there was a “real and present danger” of jury tampering and any protective measures were considered inadequate.