Listen to the BBC Law in Action interview with the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Igor Judge. Please comment on his views about the jury system and sentencing.
The interview is no longer available to download as a podcast on the bbc website, but you can listen to it online by following the link on the following page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/law_in_action/8328079.stm
Alternatively the podcast is saved on the L:Drive, but this will only be available until Tues 10th November.
3 comments:
Lord Igor Judge seems to be mixed about how he feels about the jury system. He admires them and believes they are an important part of the justice system but he tells us that there are dangers of having a jury, for example, in 2005, a rape conviction was quashed because downloaded documents were found in the jury room. This means the jury may have tried the defendant not on the evidence given in court but on the information founded on the internet. And because the defendant can't know about what happens in a jury room, they can't defend themselves or reveal the truth about the information.
On his views about sentencing, he said that anything that reduces the discretion of the judge is bad. He believes that passing a sentence because you're following guidelines and not your judgement is not right.
A lot of repsonsiblilty is left to the Lord Chief of Justice. Although people are concerned with the prison population it is stupid to challenge the shorter sentences given to people just because prisons are over crowded, as people shouldn't be get away with offences even if they are minor compared to other offences.
Short sentences arent a waste of time, if they want to stop sentencing people with short periods of time then they need to find something else in which will have a serious effect on the detainee as so they dont repeat offend.
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