Trial by Jury
| Author | Alan Grant |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7104400407 |
| Published date | 01 October 1971 |
| Date | 01 October 1971 |
ALAN
GRANT,
LL.B.,
of
the Inner Temple,Barrister-at-Law
TRIAL
BY
JURY
"Trial by
jury
is indeedthefoundation of
our
free constitution,
take
that
awayandthewhole fabricwill soon moulder into
dust."
(Lord Camden). I
"Twelve men can easily misunderstand morelaw in a minute than
the judge can explain in an
hour."
(Sunderlandj.f
On Monday, February 9,1970,severalarmed men entered a
bank
in Ilford, Essex, andstolenearly aquarter of a millionpounds in
used, untraceable bank notes which had
just
been delivered there by
a security firm engagedin bulkcash-carrying.
On Monday, October 12, 1970, eightmenandonewoman stood
in the dock at the Central Criminal
Court
(OldBailey) variously
charged with conspiracy to rob, robbery, theft and handling stolen
money,as a resultof the policeinvestigation into the
bank
raid.s
It
is thepurpose
of
this paper to look at trial by
jury
in action and,
through this medium, to consider whether eulogy or condemnation
is theappropriate reaction to this ancient institution.
The nine defendants appeared to plead to the counts in the
indictment without any jury, at that stage, being
empanelled-a
fact
not
without significance.
It
later appeared
that
the case for the
prosecution was that two employeesof thesecurityfirm, McCarthy
and Bowman, hadbeen introduced to
"the
robbers" by a contact
man, one Walker.
Now
Bowman and Walker pleaded "guilty" to
the conspiracy to rob and to handling stolen money, proceeds of the
robbery,
but
"not
guilty" to the actual robbery. These pleas were
acceptable to the prosecution
and
were permitted to be entered by
the judge. All the others, including the other security guard,
McCarthy, pleaded
"not
guilty". Bowman and Walker were then
stood downandsix menandone woman remained in the dock.
It
then appeared from representations madeby counsel appearing
for theseven defendants
that
objection wouldbe taken to the
Crown's mentioning the fact
that
Bowman
and
Walker had pleaded
guilty, in opening the case against the other accusedto the jury.
It
was contended
that
a plea
of
guilty from one defendant was
not
evidence against any other defendant. In fairness to theremaining
accused, Shaw J. ruled that, when the
jury
was eventually selected,
references in their presence to Bowman
and
Walker should
not
include the factof theguiltypleas andtheformula tobe usedwas
318October 1971
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