Report on Criminal Trial: Jury System, Process, and Reflection

This report analyzes a criminal trial, specifically the case of R v/s Bernard Rebelo, focusing on the role of the jury in the English criminal justice system. The report details the facts of the attended trial, including the case of Eloise Parry, who died due to the consumption of illegal diet pills. It examines the jury selection process, the functions of a jury in criminal trials, and the rights of both the prosecution and defense. The report also reflects on the author's experience of attending the trial, their research on the jury system, and their personal insights into the proceedings. The report provides a detailed overview of the trial proceedings, jury's responsibilities, and their role in the English criminal system.

WORLD

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Facts related to the trial that was attended...................................................................................3
PART B...........................................................................................................................................4
Jury process in English criminal system including their selection and function in criminal trials
.....................................................................................................................................................4
PART C...........................................................................................................................................6
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Legal system is a comprehensive part in United Kingdom where peace and justice are the
key pillars of the society. In the proposed essay, a criminal case proceeding will be discussed
along with the role of jury in the current criminal legal system in UK. Lastly a reflective account
on the entire experience will be presented in the essay.
MAIN BODY
PART A
Facts related to the trial that was attended
The case of R v/s Bernard Rebelo was fought in the Inner London Crown Court where the
victim was Eloise Parry, a young student of 21 years old. In the retrial that was taking place,
after the accused was charged as guilty by the Inner London Crown Court on June 2018, the
Court of Appeal had dismissed that decision and a retrial was ordered. Till then the accused drug
dealer Mr. Rebelo had already served 7 years in jail and 18 months more were required to be
served for the food and safety offences (Judgments, 2020). Currently, the retrial is going on and
in the session that was attended, the facts that could be ascertained were as follows. The victim
was Ms. Eloise Parry who was a 21 year old students studying at Glyndwr University died in the
year 2015 due to consumption of 8 DNP i.e. dinitrophenol diet pills that are illegal to be sold in
UK. The case currently stands at the point where Richard Barraclough the lawyer who had
fought the case initially as well in the Inner London court has presented the facts related to the
case before the judge in Central Criminal Court i.e. Mrs Justice Whipple (Richard Barraclough
QC Prosecutes in Slimming Pills Manslaughter Case, 2019). It has been established that the
accused seller of these drugs sold such drugs to Ms Parry through an online forum where there
were many other consumers as well. The seller i.e. Mr. Rebelo claimed that these were extremely
effective in reducing weight that was the main concern for Ms. Parry and sold these illegal drugs
that were by his admittance lethal and unfit for human consumption. Mr. Barraclough has clearly
established by the evidence of the online discussion in which Mr. Robolo himself is involved
where he has claimed that taking DNP is like Russian roulette where you don’t know whether
you will live or you are going to die.
Overall, the retrial that is going on looks very much in favour of the late Ms. Parry whose
case is being fought by her mother. The work related to the evidences and the presentation of the
arguments is critical in the decision making for every case and the manner, in which Mr
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Barraclough is presenting the case in properly segregated parts before the Judge and jury, makes
it easier to catch the gist of the whole case even if a trial session is attended in middle. The
majority of the ground work is done by the assistant of the lawyer who collects all the necessary
details, clues and evidences and presents the facts as they are before the lawyer who is fighting
Whipple (Richard Barraclough QC Prosecutes in Slimming Pills Manslaughter Case, 2019). It
was the artwork of the lawyer which saved the case where the arguments that Mr. Barraclough
presented and the command that he had over the jury and the skills that he sued made one listen
even if they were wrong. In this case, the wrong that was done to the victim Ms. Parry was
horrific and multiple evidences were being presented. The retrial was at the most critical stage
and in the next two or three trials, it is perceived that the final decision of the prevailing jury and
the judge Mrs Justice Whipple would be announced soon.
PART B
Since the case proceeding that was observes was carried out on the crown court, the question
related to jury appointment and their role will be selected.
Jury process in English criminal system including their selection and function in criminal trials
The basic idea behind the jury system was first initiated in Britain under Henry II from
whence it has become an important part in the decision making of the cases fought in courts
today (Elliott and Quinn, 2016). Although the presence of jury is still mandatory in the court
cases being fought especially in the criminal cases, yet the role of such jury and the influence
that it held earlier has declined with time. In the criminal cases, the jury still holds a important
place where they can inflict the decisions that are being made and there are seldom any cases
when the jury gets abolished.
In order for a person to qualify to be selected in the jury service and act as a juror, the
person must be registered under electoral register and the age group must be between the 18
years to the 70 years. Additionally the person must be resident of UK for at least five years after
the age of 13 and can be qualified o be included as a juror. All the persons related to judiciary,
re member of legal profession, have been sentenced for more than 5 years or are on bail are
treated as ineligible to be selected as jurors as per the Juries Disqualification Act, 1974
(Dorsaneo III, 2018). Jurors for a case are selected randomly form the register of electoral and
therefore any juror might be included in the jury system where they will have to constitute as
apart of the jury which involves 12 members till date. Earlier the jurors were often selected
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locally at each court centre but now the Central Summoning Bureau has been developed at
Blackfriars Crown Court where the randomly selected jurors are then summoned by issuing them
an application.
The function of the jury especially in the criminal cases varies on the type of criminal
case it is being fought. The summary offences are minor and less serious offence that are often
triable in magistrate courts. The second type is triable either way offences where the case can be
tried either in a magistrate’s court or in crown court if the magistrate and defendant are willing to
do so (Crosby, 2017). The third is the indictable only offences’ that can only be tried in the
crown court directly. The role of jury in the criminal cases arises in those cases where the
defendant pleads not guilty and the case then has to be tired before a jury. The number of trials
where the accused pleads not guilty are only limited with very few of the trials but such trial s
are extremely serious ones where the jury plays a significant role in deciding on the verdict of
the case that is being fought.
There are certain rights that are available to the prosecution while the juror is being
selected where they can request them to “stand by for the crown” i.e. the jurors goes back to the
pool and the prosecution does not have to present any cause for doing such thing. The defence
does not have any such right where earlier they had the right to exclude the maximum of three
jurors without giving any cause but it was later abolished under Criminal Justice Act 1988
(Garcia, 2017). Now the defence can challenge only for a cause on the selection of the jurors.
However at times the judge has the right to discharge the jury or any of the jury members
where if they are found to be inappropriate or not properly qualified at the moment to be the part
of the jury, they can be discharged. Currently there is no provision to replace the juror that has
been discharged and therefore, many a times judges prefer adjournment if the trial is long and
this helps in avoiding the decrease in the jury members (Hunt, 2017).
There are many additional powers that have been granted to the judge when a jury is in
the course of trial where the first right is that judge has the right to halt the proceedings I the case
of the prosecution is very weak and further judge can direct the jury to acquit. Second is that the
judge can significantly assist the jury on the fact determination process where judge has the right
to sum up the entire case and lay power or emphasis on certain facts over other irrelevant facts
(Crosby, 2019). The third right is related to the fact that in many complex criminal cases, despite
the understanding of the jury, there are certain points on which jury can demand explanation
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which in turn have to be clearly explained by the judge to the jury during the process of factual
decision making (Thomas, 2017). The jury has the right to take as much time as they want and
have uninterrupted, unheard and uninfluenced discussions in the jury room and they cannot be
forced or coerced in any manner to quicken their decision making process. If there is any point
on which the jury requires further clarification then they can send a note to the judge who in turn
shall reconvene the court with jury where both the counsels are heard on that particular matter.
Then the adequate directions are presented before the judge.
Finally regarding the decision that is to be taken, earlier the law required unanimous
decision by the jury but over the years modification has been introduced where the verdict can be
in ratio of 8 to 2 or even 9 to 1 (Harding, 2019). However, even if after considerable time the
jurors are not able to reach a unanimous decision, then the judge might direct them to state the
majority decision and foreman can announce the ratio of agreeing and disagreeing jurors
(Willmott, Boduszek and Booth, 2017). However, the verdict of the jury once reached cannot be
questioned or challenged and they do not he to give any reason or argument behind the
judgement that they have developed. Further the decision of the jury is considered to be
sovereign thus highlighting the importance of jury in English criminal system.
PART C
Reflection
The reason that I selected the question related to evaluation of jury is that I have always
been fascinated about the manner in which they work holding so much power regarding the
verdict of the case etc. that made me curious. Further, when I decided to visit the retrial that was
going on the case of R v/s Rebelo, first of all made myself acquainted with all the relevant facts
and past data that had been ascertained on the case and then I also prepared myself in case I had
to take any relevant notes which I did. I think that my experience of visiting court was very
fascinating where I found that there is too much dialogue exchange. Although the proceedings of
court are very slow and lengthy yet with every hearing he manner in which case unravels itself is
quite fascinating. In the preparation of the part B of my assignment which was the main part, I
had to conduct an extensive secondary research where I developed a deep and insightful
understanding on the entire procedure of jury selection, their responsibilities and the role till
decision making. I had to use a lot of secondary resources that was time consuming but also
extremely knowledgeable. I tried to critically assess all the aspects related to jury selection and
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their role in the English criminal system in the answers that I prepared and yet I did not become
opinionated about anything. I mainly enjoyed the part where I had the chance to practically
watch the case trial that I attended and then state the key facts of that trial but I did not very
much enjoy the limited time within which we had to complete the essay as I was very interested
in the working of jury. I can effectively state that my completion of this assignment, my
understanding related to the jury system specially in the criminal trials has improved a lot and
become much clearer then it was earlier.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the research conducted in the essay above it can be concluded that the role of
jury is very significant and critical in the criminal cases and they can affect the entire decision or
verdict that is being taken without any justifications.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Crosby, K., 2017. Keeping women off the jury in 1920s England and Wales. Legal
Studies, 37(4), pp.695-717.
Crosby, K., 2019. Restricting the Juror Franchise in 1920s England and Wales. Law and History
Review. 37(1). pp.163-207.
Dorsaneo III, W.V., 2018. The Decline of Anglo-American Civil Jury Trial Practice. SMUL
Rev.. 71. p.353.
Elliott, C. and Quinn, F., 2016. English Legal System 2016/2017. Pearson Education.
Garcia, A., 2017. Patching the Exhaust Pipe: A Historical Analysis of Oregon's Non-Unanimous
Jury Law in Criminal Cases. Willamette L. Rev.. 54. p.113.
Harding, A., 2019. The law courts of medieval England (Vol. 18). Routledge.
Hunt, T.L., 2017. Servants, Masters and Seditious Libel in Eighteenth-Century England. Book
History. 20(1). pp.83-110.
Thomas, C.A., 2017. Ethnicity and the fairness of jury trials in England and Wales 2006-
2014. Criminal Law Review. 2017(11). pp.860-876.
Willmott, D., Boduszek, D. and Booth, N., 2017. The English jury on trial. Custodial Review, 82,
pp.12-14.
Online
Judgments. 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :< https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/>
Richard Barraclough QC Prosecutes in Slimming Pills Manslaughter Case. 2019. [ONLINE]
Available through :< https://www.stpaulschambers.com/richard-barraclough-qc-
prosecutes-in-slimming-pills-manslaughter-case/>
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