Evaluate the Reliability of Jury Trial

• The jury is ancient and democratic: only the rich members of society where on the jury

• Professor Blackstone- “it is the bulwark of our liberties”: he said that juries are our liberties, it’s our right

• Lord Devlin- “the lamp that shows freedom lives”: we have freedom, charged with an advance, incant until pleaded guilty

• Michael Mansfield QC- “the most democratic element of our judicial system”: one part of the system that doesn’t change, everyone is involved with the process.

The jury bases their decision on facts, on what they’ve been told in court or by the judge. Jury equity stands for axially that, this does not require any legal training. In Ponting (1985), the jury refused to convict even though the judge ruled there was no defence. Twelve opinions are better than one, and because of S.8 Contempt of Court Act conducted in secret, which means they are free from influence and pressure by the media and the public. The jury are free to discuss their final verdict on their own. The juries will often make a decision that is fair but not always legally correct. In R V Owen (1992) the jury sympathised with the defendant because he acted in a way which was perceived as getting justice for his dead son, even though legally he had committed a crime. Proving that members of the jury are everyday people.

Juries are not hardened by law, they are not prosecuted biased or case hardened in the same way that a judge may be perceived to be. For most people, it will be the first time they have served on a jury and they therefore would be keen to do a good job and obtain the fairest result. The members are the jury understand that being involved in court is serious and would put their best foot forwarded each time.

Not all actions, done by the jury, can be seen as a positive thing. People are often resentful of serving on a jury and are keen to finish as fast as possible to return home to their workplace or to their families. Media influences can often inadvertently affect the outcome of a case, for example R V Taylor and Taylor (1993) where a newspaper had published CCTV footage giving false impression of what had happened. Another case is R v West (1996), in this case the defendant Rosemary West was convicted for the murders of ten young girls and women, as well as her own daughter. From the moment that she was discovered of this horrific crime the media coverage was extreme. Although understandable the media would have considerably influenced the jurors trying the case who gave a verdict of Guilty, due to this Rosemary West appealed against her conviction on the grounds that the media coverage had made it impossible for her to receive a fair trial. The court of Appeal rejected this claim since if it was accepted it would mean that any case that shocked the nation could not be tried due to the