Flashcards
Lay People Key Cases
Cards in this deck (13)
- 1Bushell's Case 1670Several jurors refused to convict Quaker activists of unlawful assesmbly. The trial judge would not accept the not guilty verdict, and ordered the jurors to resume their deliberations without food or drink.
When the jurors persisted in their refusal to convict, the court fined them and committed them to prison until the fines were paid.
On appeal, the Court of Common Pleas ordered the release of the jurors holding that jurors coule not be punished for their verdict. - 2R v McKenna 1960The judge at the trial threatened the jurors that if they did not return a verdict within another ten minutes they would be locked up all night. The jury then returned a verdict of guilty, but the defendant's conviction was quashed on appael becuase of the judge's interference.
- 3Pointing's Case 1984A civil servant was charged under the old wide-ranging s.2 Official Secrets Act 1911. He had leaked informtion on the sinking og the ship, The General Belgrano, in the Falklands war to an MP.
At his trial he pleaded not guilty, claiming that his actions had been in the ublic interest. the jury refused to convict him even though the judge ruled there was no defence. - 4R v Mirza 2004The defendant was a Pakistani who had had an interpreter to help him in the trial. During the trial the jury sent notes asking why he needed an interpreter. He was convicted on a 10:2 majority.
Six days after the jury verdict, one juror wrote to the defendant's counsel alleging that from the start of the trial there had been a 'theory' that the use of an interpreter was a 'ploy'. The juror also said that she had been shouted down when she objected and reminded her fellow jurors of the judge's directions. - 5R v Randle and Pottle 1991The defendants were charged with helping a spy to escape from prison and flee to Russia. their prosecution did not occur until 25 years after the escape, when they wrote about what they had done. the jury acquitted them, possibly as a protest over the time lapse between the offence and the prosecution.
- 6R v Kronlid and others 1996The defendants admitted they had caused £1.5 million in damage to a plane. They pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal damage on the basis that they were preventing the plane from being sent to Indonesia where it would have been used i nattacks against the people of East Timor. The jury acquitted them.
- 7R v Connor and Rollock 2004A juror wrote to the Crown Court stating that while many jurors thought it was one or other of the defendants who had committed the stabbing, they should convict both to 'teach them a lesson'.
The House of Lords held that:
- confidentiality was essential to the proper functioning of the jury process
- there was merit in finality
- jurors had to be protected from harassment - 8R v Young (Stephen) 1995The defendant was charged with the murder of two people. the jury had to stay in a hotel overnight as it had not reached a verdict by the end of the first day of deliberations. At the hotel, four of the jurors held a seance using a ouija board to try to contact the dead victims and ask them who had killed them. the next day, the jury returned a guilty verdict.
When the use of the ouija board became known, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial. the Court also felt able to inquire itno what had happened as it had occurred in a gotel and was not part of the jury room deliverations. - 9R v Karakaya 2005The defendant was accussed of rape. a juror did an internet search at home and brought into the jury room the printed-out results of the search. the jury convicted Karakaya, but this conviction was quashed becuase of the outside information that the jury had access to during its deliberations.
A retrial was ordered and the defendant was acquitted by the jury in the second trial. - 10Sander v UK 2000One juror had written a note to the judge raising concern over the fact that other jurors had been making openly racist remarks and jokes.
The European Court of Human Rights held that in the circumstances of the case the judge should have discharged the jury as there was an obvious risk of racial bias and a breach of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of teh European Convention on Human Rights. - 11R v Taylor and Taylor 1993Two sisters were charged with murder. Some newspapers published still photos taken from a video which gave a false impression of what was happening.
After the jury had convicted the sisters, the judge gave leave to appeal becuase of the possible influence the pictures could have had on the jury's verdict and the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions. - 12R v Twomey and others 2009The defendants were charged with various offences connected to a large robbery from a warehouse at Heathrow. Three previous trials had collapsed and there had been a 'serious attempt a jury tampering' in the last of these.
The prosecution applied to a singe judge for the trial to take place without a jury. The judge refused, but the Court of Appeal overturned this decision, ordering that the trial should take palce without a jury - 13KS v R 2010There had been several trials on various allegations of fraud committed by the defendant. It was not until the tenth trial that jury tampering occurred. It occurred becuase jurors and members of the public who wished to smoke during breaks were directed to the same area. During one of these breaks, a friend of the defendant approached a juror.
The Court of Appeal refused an application for trial by judge alone. The pointed out that the casual arrangements at the Crown Court which had allowed the contact would not be repeated. Also the appraoch had been opportnistic ratehr than a deliberate targeting of jurors. For these reasons, there was no need to order trial by judge alone.