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Thursday, 20 May 1999

Britain wants to limit right to a jury trial, citing abuses

LONDON (AP) - The right to a jury trial, handed down from ancient times and the Magna Carta, is being abused by defendants and needs to be restricted for certain crimes, the government said yesterday.
Home Secretary Jack Straw, the Cabinet official in charge of criminal justice, announced a legislative proposal to curb the automatic right, saying many defendants are ``working the system,'' wasting time and money.
Lawyers and advocates for minority groups immediately said they would fight to protect the right, and a former judge accused the government of simply trying to pinch pennies.
``The right to trial by jury is a fundamental safeguard not just for the protection of the accused, but also for upholding the legitimacy of the whole criminal justice system,'' said Vicky Chapman, policy director of the Legal Action Group, a private group that campaigns for equal access to justice.
The government said that under the legislation, magistrates will decide whether a jury or a judge should try cases involving offenses such as theft, burglary, assault and criminal damage. More serious offenses will continue to be tried in Crown Court before juries. Less serious cases such as motoring offenses and drunkenness are already tried exclusively before magistrates.
Last year, Straw said, the courts logged 18,500 cases of the type that would be affected by the legislation, in which defendants demanded jury trials.
``In many of these, the defendants changed their plea to guilty when they appeared in court,'' Straw said in a speech to the Police Federation Conference in Blackpool.
``This manipulation of the system cannot be right. It causes anxiety and concern to victims and witnesses and it costs the taxpayer thousands of pounds in extra court costs and legal aid. It also wastes the valuable time of police officers, prosecutors and judges,'' he said.
Some defendants, Straw said, simply hope to be sentenced to time already served, since those awaiting trial are treated less strictly by prison authorities than convicts.
Straw did not say when the government would introduce the legislation, which would apply only in England and Wales. Defendants will have a right to appeal a magistrate's decision to refuse a jury trial, he added.

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Find out more about the debate over juries at BBC News.


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