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More on juries…

Friday 29 July 2005 at 12:26 pm | In News | Post Comment

R v Abdroikov, Green & Williamson [2005] CA
[Juries – composition]
DDD challenged the composition of the jury in their trials. In two cases, a serving police officer sat as a juror, and in the other, a Crown Prosecution Service solicitor.

Held: Since the Criminal Justice Act 2003 persons eligible to sit on a jury had been widened. It was necessary to draw a distinction between eligibility and whether a particular person should sit on a particular jury.
Persons involved in the administration of justice should not automatically be regarded as being disqualified, because of their occupations, from a jury. Jurors are randomly selected and appear as members of the public.
Special knowledge of the criminal justice system might create unconscious prejudiced, prejudice could exist in any juror and there being 12 jurors guards against individual prejudice.
It is expected that those employed in the administration of justice would be particularly careful not to act in a manner which was inconsistent with their jury duty.
In some cases the occupation of a juror as a police officer could reduce rather than increase his influence.

Guilty