ON MONDAY (April 27) 12 local people took part in an action outside Cardiff Crown Court sharing vital information with the public about the government’s attack on the right to trial by jury in England and Wales. The event was hosted by the group, The Jury Alliance.
Since the announcement in December last year by the Justice Secretary, David Lammy that the right to trial by jury would be removed from thousands of cases in order to reduce the backlog crisis in the criminal justice system, the government has continued to rush through the new legislation.
If passed, the Courts and Tribunals Bill, currently at the Committee stage, will see a single judge replacing a jury, 12 randomly selected members of the public, for all cases in the Crown Court where a prison sentence, if a defendant is found guilty, of three years or less is expected.
Flyers being handed out to the public today said: “The government is not telling the truth. No report into court problems has ever said the jury is the cause of delays and backlogs.
“The reason has been clearly identified in every report: it’s underfunding. Juries did not cause the backlog. Removing juries will not fix the backlog.”
The group has found no evidential basis to support the government’s claims that limiting the number of jury trials will meaningfully tackle the backlog crisis in the criminal justice system.
The Jury Alliance aims to bring the public’s attention to the misinformation about juries being shared by the government and raise awareness, through conversations, of the role of juries to provide a common-sense check on the law that is a crucial safeguard of justice.
Christina Jenkins, 32, a carer from Cwmbran who was at the protest today said: “Making only one person responsible for life changing rulings opens the courts up to authoritarianism and corruption; there are no checks and balances for if that person is being racist, or homophobic or sexist, especially when that person is a member of the elite ruling classes.”
Gareth Harper, a website developer from Swansea said today: “Many of our countries’ laws originate over 100 years ago. Juries represent how the people feel right now. Without juries our legal system will remain archaic and unrepresentative of people in Wales today.”
