Jury System Reforms Can’t Come Soon Enough
“Concern that jury selection is in some cases having more bearing on the outcome than the evidence shows that jury system reforms can’t come soon enough,” Police Association President Greg O'Connor said today.
Counties-Manukau Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini drew attention, via Police Association magazine Police News,to a recent case where defence lawyers issued a total of 46 peremptory challenges to prevent people taking a place on the jury. Peremptory challenges allow lawyers to object to potential jurors, for example if they believe they would be unsympathetic to their clients, without having to give a reason for the objection. Such challenges have been eliminated from the justice system in the United Kingdom.
In the recent case, the defendants were acquitted despite the evidence and members of the jury were then seen to ‘high-five’ and hug the defendants and members of their families.
“Issues with the jury system have been acknowledged by Government. The Criminal Procedure Bill contains reforms both to cut the number of peremptory challenges available to defence lawyers from six down to four, and also to allow judge-alone trials in complex cases or where there is a risk of juror intimidation, for example in organised crime cases,” Mr O’Connor said.
“Unfortunately, despite that bill having been introduced into Parliament in mid-2004, it still hasn’t been passed. The sorts of cases highlighted by Detective Senior Sergeant Pizzini show that the reforms it contains can’t come soon enough.”
