I posted on dozing judges a few days ago, and made a glancing reference to the infamous “Sudoku trial”, where jurors completed Sudoku puzzles to keep awake during the giving of evidence. Apparently the re-run of the Sudoku trial has just been completed, and it was a different kettle of fish from the first time around:
In the first trial, for example, more than 30 people gave evidence over two weeks about the surveillance operation at the insistence of the defence. This time one witness was led through testimony that lasted half a day.
Apparently, the first trial had been “more a test of endurance than an exercise in fact-finding”:
From March 4 until June 10, the 12 persons “good and true” listened to 105 witnesses, including 20 police officers, and hours of mind-numbing police intercepts. At one point the prosecution even insisted the jury listen to hours of tape with lengthy periods of silence so they could disprove claims of police impropriety.
There have now been calls to reform the jury system, with some recognition that it is natural for a jury to be bored witless if they have to listen to hours of silent tape recordings or protracted arguments about technical procedures. I wouldn’t expect my students to be able to pay attention if I made them listen to that kind of stuff during lectures. In fact, I think people have a limit as to how much information they can process in such circumstances, and this really needs to be taken into account in submissions to a jury. I’m sure there are studies as to how people process information effectively, and sitting passively for weeks in a stuffy court room listening to interminable testimony is surely not a recommended strategy.
In other news, Kirby J has suggested that there should be a telecast of High Court proceedings so that the public have an opportunity to see our legal system at work. I think it is a great idea to familiarise the general public with the way in which the legal system works. Whether anyone other than a nerd like me would watch it…well, that’s another question!
6 Comments
LE,
I think the reform should not be to the jury system, but to judicial training. The judges (IMHO) should take a much stronger line with counsel (both sides) to see that the jury are not being bored to tears and that testimony is relevant.
Many calls for the “reform” of the jury system normally mean it abolition. I would be strongly opposed to that, seeing it as an essential part of the system and a good check on judicial power.
I wonder if perhaps in the digital age , SBS or ABC could do something similar to American C-SPAN with Question Time, major debates/speeches and major trials in superior courts? I think given the attention that sites like Nate Silver’s during the US elections got, there’s a big untapped market of us legal/politics nerds out there! Surely if they can have ABC2 pottering away out there (whatever it does), they can give out some more licences!
Andrew, totally agree – the flaw is not with juries themselves but with the way in which the legal system treats them. The traditional response to issues like Sudoku playing jurors is to chastise them for not paying attention and then call for the abolition of juries. I’m suggesting that the response should be to look at how we run trials and amend that instead.
Flozza, I agree – if they have bandwidth for it, why not have a channel? ABC2 is quite good; I’ve seen some interesting documentaries on it, and it’s a god-send when my daughter starts demanding what she calls “Baby TV, not Daddy TV”.
Agree with Andrew. Spot on. A mate was in the jury pool for the most recent Peter Dupas trial (he was excused) and thought other members of the pool looked more suspect than the accused!
“there should be a telecast of High Court proceedings”
A capital idea. After all, with digital TV we can get Question Time and Senate committees, so why not?
Actually, I think privacy issues could be a stumbling block. Still, leaving bits of the trials out of the public broadcast is easily done.
Yes, I think Kirby J was envisaging edited broadcasts. Maybe they could stream it on the net too?