Barristers urge MPs to preserve trial by jury
By Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor of the Telegraph.
(Filed: 04/01/2003)
 

Barristers' leaders urged MPs yesterday to preserve the right to trial by jury against attacks by the Government.

The Bar Council, which regulates and represents barristers in England and Wales, asked the Commons not to approve proposals in the Criminal Justice Bill imposing trial by judge alone in four types of case.

The Government wants to abolish jury trial if the defendant has requested it; in long or complex trials relating to financial and property transactions; if burdensome police protection is needed to avoid the danger of jury tampering; and where jury tampering appears to have taken place.

Peter Rook, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association and its working party on the Bill, said: "Home Office mandarins have been itching to get rid of juries under successive governments, but Parliament has always said 'no'."

The latest proposals were "designed to ease the public out of its rightful role at the heart of the justice system".

The public trusted jury trials. "Juries have no problem understanding the plain issue of dishonesty in serious fraud cases, where the conviction rate is at 80 per cent plus. If the police suspect jury tampering, they should arrest and charge those responsible." Dropping juries in such cases was giving in to criminal gangs.

Mr Rook said the Bar Council would urge Opposition MPs to table amendments "at the appropriate opportunity. Juries are at the heart of our democracy, and they bring to bear on a trial more collective experience and wisdom than can a judge sitting alone. By their presence, juries also protect judges from unfounded allegations of bias."