Today Monday 18 May, local people gathered at Nottingham Crown Court to demonstrate opposition to the government attack on trial by jury.
The Jury Alliance is hosting a national campaigning day of action outside 40 Crown Courts across England and Wales.
Juries are made up of 12 randomly selected people, reflecting the local community, and provide a vital, common-sense check on the law.
The Institute for Government said: “Judge-only trials in England and Wales will save less than 2% of time in Crown Court.” The Bar Council estimates that this will reduce the delay for a trial by one week following a two-year wait.
Eve, from Lady Bay and one of those taking part in the protest in Nottingham today, said:
“I worked as a probation officer for 35 years, and I’m alarmed at the very real prospect of people being denied the right to a fair trial. I see no evidence that removing jury trials will reduce the backlog in the system or save much money.”
The Jury Alliance is a new public campaigning group aiming to raise public awareness and demonstrate the strength of public opposition to the government’s plans to limit trial by jury.
Since the Justice Secretary’s announcement in December last year that the right to trial by jury would be removed from tens of thousands of cases in order to reduce the backlog crisis in the criminal justice system, the government has continued to rush through this new legislation.
If passed, the Courts and Tribunals Bill, currently at the report stage, will see a single judge replacing a jury of 12 randomly selected members of the public for all cases in the Crown Court where a prison sentence of three years or less is expected.
Flora Page KC, the barrister who overturned wrongful convictions in the Post Office Horizon scandal, recently resigned from the Legal Services Board, the independent regulator of legal services in England and Wales, so she could oppose the changes.
In her resignation letter to the Justice Secretary, she said:
“I am sorry to say that I believe the backlog is a cynical cover, something that the officials have worked on intentionally to give you and Ms Sackman the ammunition you feel you need to take aim at jury trial. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Sir Geoffrey Cox KC, a practising criminal barrister of 44 years, told the House of Commons during the second reading debate:
“Jury trial is the most powerful instrument and engine of social justice that this country has ever invented. It is a safeguard against oppression. It is a built-in defence against establishment and administrative power… At a time when our institutions are under unprecedented attack, is now the time to transfer a massive trunk of the administration of criminal justice to a representative who will unquestionably be seen as a representative of the state?”
