Jury deliberations to come under spotlight
Jury deliberations could come under scrutiny under Government plans to assess how well the current legal system is working.
The Lord Chancellor is considering whether to allow researchers to interview jurors once a case is over to determine how verdicts are reached.
Under existing law the 12 men and women who make up a jury are banned from discussing their deliberations on how they reached a verdict with any outside party.
Lord Falconer is now considering allowing researchers to question jurors following the publication of a consultation paper looking at ways to investigate claims of jury impropriety.
The announcement follows concerns that some jurors have shown signs of racial bias or behaved inappropriately in recent cases.
The proposals could result in the issuing of new guidelines to instruct jurors on how they should do their job.
Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he had a “genuinely open mind” on whether researchers should study jurors’ deliberations.
“Because we don’t know how juries reach their decisions, and what would help them most in the presentation of cases, the question arises as to whether or not, on an anonymous basis, very exceptionally, you allow researchers in to ask individual jurors, not to investigate that individual case, but to try to reach conclusions more widely about the system,” he said.
The Lord Chancellor stressed that any research would be subject to strict safeguards in order to protect jurors’ privacy.
