Challenging

Challenging

1. Once the court clerk has selected the panel of 12 jurors, these jurors come into the jury box to be sworn in as jurors.

   • Before the jury is sworn in, both the prosecution and defence have certain rights to challenge one or more of the jurors. There are 2 challenges which can be made and, in addition, the prosecution has a special right.
     • To the array
       • This right to challenge is given by s5 of the Juries Act 1974 and it is a challenge to the whole jury on the basis that it has been chosen in an unrepresentative or biased way.
       • This was successfully used against the 'Romford' jury at the Old Bailey in 1993 when 9/12 jurors came from Romford, with two of them living within 20 doors of each other in the same street.
       • R v Fraser - the defendant was on an ethnic minority background but all the jurors were white.
       • R v Ford - it was held that if the jury was chosen in a random manner then it could not be challenged simply because it was not multi-racial.
     • For cause
       • This involves challenging the right of an individual juror to sit on the jury. To be successful, the challenge must point out a valid reason why that juror should not serve on the jury.
       • An obvious reason is that the juror is disqualified, but a challenge for cause can also be made if the juror knows or is related to a witness or defendant.
         • If these people are not removed from the jury there is a risk that any subsequent conviction could be quashed.
           • R v Wilson and R v Sprason - the wife of a prison officer was summoned for jury service. She had asked to be excused on that ground, but it was denied. She served on the jury which convicted the two defendant of robbery, both who had been on remand at the prison where her husband worked. The Court of Appeal said that justice must not only be done, but seen to be done; the presence of Mrs Roberts on the jury prevented that, so that the convictions had to be quashed.
     • Prosecution right to stand by jurors
       • This is a right that only the prosecution can exercise. It allows the juror who has been stood by to be put to the end of the list of potential jurors, so that they will not be used on the jury unless there are not enough other jurors.
         • The prosecution does not have to give a reason for 'standing by' but the A-G's guidelines make it clear that this power should be used sparingly.