Juror-determined sentences (1 Viewer)

[Frigid]

sorry been out of the interweb for a two weeks so need to catch up on my news...

here: Finally, the law might loosen its grip on the jury

and here: Lawyers pan jury ideahttp://www.smh.com.au/news/national/lawyers-pan-jury-idea/2006/07/26/1153816251780.html

basically i think this is bad, political knee-jerking.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

And so we have, as I recently observed at painful length, cases such as Regina v Abed Jawad Hersh, where the defence presented an overwhelming case, pulverised the Crown's star witness (a serial perjurer) and, from what I understand, convinced 11 jurors murder charges should never have been laid against Hersh.

Alas, one juror - whose distracted behaviour was obvious throughout the trial - presented a note to the judge which argued that the police had charged Hersh with murder so was it not proper to believe the police?

That doesn't make sense... if the defence presented an overwhelming case gathering 11 supporting jurors then the alleged rogue juror would be in favour of the prosecution

 

[machine169]

I agree it doesn't make sense. I was recently involved in a case were our cliet had been charged with attempted murder. The jury was 11-1 in our favor so it was hung. There would have been a re-trial but we put in a no bill application and we were successful. I have talked to a few people in the legal sphere who feel that if the jury had a great amount of power we would see 20 yr sentences given out tottle crimes. Those in jail think they're in for too long, victims say people arent in jail long enough. As someone pointed out on the news last night. Does this mean the jury are going to give up alot of time to read precedents?