Observing History - Heathrow Robbery Trial Starts Without Jury
Supporters of the defendants in the UK’s first modern criminal trial where a jury has been denied placed banners on the railings outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
This morning I went to the Royal Courts of Justice to personally witness the start of the first modern [...]
The Royal Courts of Justice. The country’s great cathedral of justice is reduced to a mere reminder of a past era by the government’s erosion of the right to trial by jury. (Photo credit: antmoose)
The first criminal trial without a jury in modern times is to begin on Tuesday the 12th of January 2009. [...]
I visited the new Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Thursday the 23rd of October.
I had visited at 14.00 on the afternoon of the opening day - on Monday the 20th, to be told that there were no courts sitting that afternoon, and there would not be any adult courts until Thursday. This left me concerned [...]
I have just commented on the article on the Imperial College student run news website Live! on a prospective medical student who had his medical school place taken away from him due to a referral order he had received following a burglary at the age of 15.
In a Guardian article the prospective student has said:
[...]
I spent a day watching the Cambridge Magistrates Courts in action today.
Of the defendants I saw there were two eastern Europeans, one person from 222 Victoria Road, one from Jimmy’s night shelter, an elderly British man, and four young apparently local men in their teens/early twenties. I saw eight defendants, all were male. I [...]
Following my experience as a member of a Jury I wrote to my MP with some very simple suggestions for improving the Jury trial process:
David Howarth,
I would like to suggest that you seek to amend the Criminal Justice Act (or the relevant legislation) to ensure:
A Jury should always be sent out of court and allowed [...]