Jack Straw says UK government should axe defendant's right to elect jury trial
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Labour grandee Jack Straw has called for thousands of defendants each year to be stripped of their right to elect a jury trial. Mr Straw, who served as Home Secretary under Tony Blair and Justice Secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, first proposed the radical change while in government.
But it was torpedoed by a rebellion in the House of Lords in 2000, with peers uniting to block legislation. Mr Straw has now revived the idea, as the new Labour government contemplates ways to tackle the spiraling justice crisis, record courts backlog, and the dearth of prison places.
Defendants who are charged with “summary” offences stand trial in the magistrates courts and those accused of the most serious “indictable only” crimes face justice in the crown courts. In the middle are “either way” offences, where a magistrates court can decide to try a case or send it to the crown court, and the defendant also gets a say on where the case is dealt with.
Mr Straw called it a “ridiculous anomaly” that defendants accused of some crimes can “game” the system by choosing a jury trial. “Rationally, there is no case whatsoever for giving the defendant a right to decide the forum for their [trial], to play the system”, he told legal journalist Frances Gibb on her podcast, ‘The Lord Chancellors: Where Politics Meets Justice’.
He predicted a “terrible fuss” if the idea was brought back, but said he would press ahead if he was in charge again. The government has commissioned two reviews – one into sentencing in criminal hearings and a second led by Sir Brian Leveson which is looking at ideas to tackle the backlogs and minimize delays in the courts.
