Jury service normally lasts for about 10 days and loss of earnings will be paid up to a maximum of £52.63 for the first 10 days and a maximum of £105.28 for subsequent days.
In the past the jury used to be made up of people who had witnessed the actual crime or people who knew the victim of the crime, this is not the case today as the jury are now chosen at random so as to get a fair cross-section of society who are not biased in any way.
It is the right of the jury to judge what the facts are, what the law is and establish what was the moral intent of the accused.
The jury listen to the entire hearing and are allowed to take notes or ask to have certain things clarified if there is anything they aren’t sure of, as it is extremely important that they have understood what has been said so that they can later reach a fair verdict.
After the closing speech the judge will:
- Sum up the facts of the trial.
- Tell jurors about the particular law which applies to the case in question.
- Ask the jury to choose a foreman/woman.
All the jury must agree on a verdict, if this is not possible then the judge will take a majority verdict.
The majority of people doing jury service will be required to sit at more than one case.
There are many advantages and disadvantages of using a jury to decide the outcome of a criminal case, some of the advantages are:
The defendant has confidence in a jury, they may believe that the jury will find in favour of the defendant as the jury find it easier to place themselves in the position of the defendant. Quite often the 12 members of the jury will be fairer than one person sitting alone would be. The jury are a cross-section of society which should mean a fairer trial for the defendant.
There are also many disadvantages of trial by jury, some of them are that the jury may be prejudiced by the media. If the press are reporting about the case then they may mention about previous offences that the defendant has committed which may influence the decision of some of the jury. Some jury members may have also signed deals worth a lot of money with certain tabloids so that they can sell their story, and tell about parts of the trial which weren’t made public, this may influence the decision they reach at the end of the trial, deciding on a certain verdict may make their deal with the tabloids more profitable.
Jury service may also be very stressful on certain individuals.
Another disadvantage of trial by jury is that nobody knows how the jury came to their decision, its something that is known only to the fellow jury members.
Some jury members may also have strong opinions which influence the other jury members.
Jury service is valuable to our country but it also comes with many advantages and disadvantages.
