English Legal System: Juries Flashcards
What is a jury?
A group of 12 people selected to decide the outcome of a defendant whether they are guilty or not guilty.
What case firmly establishes that the jury are soul arbiters of fact and the judge cannot challenge their decisions?
Bushell’s case 1670: The Court of Common Pleas held that a jury may not be punished for returning a verdict contrary to a court’s direction.
What are the qualifications required to be a juror?
Aged between 18 and 75
Registered as a parliamentary or local government elector
A resident of the UK
What can disqualify people from jury service?
Those who have been imprisoned for life or for Public Protection
Those who suffered from a mental illness or psychopathic disorder
Those who are on bail
Who has the right to be excused from jury service?
Members of the forces
Police officers
Members of Parliament
Who can apply for a discretionary excusal?
Those who have hospital appointments
Those who have exams
Those who have booked holidays
What is lack of capacity?
When a judge may discharge a person from being a juror for the inability to cope with the trial
for example not being able to speak English adequately or someone who is blind.
How are jurors selected?
At random from the electoral registers, from the area which the court covers.
Those summoned must notify the court if there is any reason why they should not or cannot attend.
What is the penalty for not turning up to court for jury service?
A fine up to £1,000
What are the two types of vetting?
Police checks that are made on prospective jurors to eliminate those disqualified
Wider background checks
What are the guidelines of vetting?
Vetting should only be used in exceptional cases involving national security and terrorists cases.
Vetting can only be carried out with the attorney-general’s permission.
What are the rights that both the prosecution and defence have to challenge one or more other jurors?
To the array, which is a right given by section 5 of the Juries Act 1974 to challenge the whole jury on the basis that it has been chosen in an unrepresentative way.
For cause, which involves challenging the right of an individual juror to sit on the jury for example if they are disqualified.
The prosecution’s right to allow the Juror who has been stood by to not be used on the jury unless there are not enough jurors.
What is directed acquittal?
Where a judge decides there is insufficient prosecution evidence to allow the case to continue, so the jury is directed to find the defendant not guilty.
What is the majority verdict ratio that can be accepted?
10:2 or 11:1
What are the advantages of using juries?
Since juries are not legal experts they are not bound to follow the president of past cases and do not need to give reasons for their verdict.
The random selection leads to an impartial jury as juries will have different prejudices and so should cancel out each other’s biases.
The secrecy of the jury room protects the jurors from outside influences when deciding on verdicts that may be unpopular with the public.
