Juries

Majority verdicts were introduced in part to dilute the influence of ethnic minority and working class jurors, according to new research. Undertaken by miscarriage of justice charity Appeal, the study found that the rationale for the introduction of majority verdicts in 1967, as opposed to unanimous

The High Court has determined that a decision by the Special Criminal Court to certify a miscarriage of justice was within the range of reasonable decisions and was not irrational. Delivering judgment for the High Court, Ms Justice Garrett Simons found that the decision of the Special Criminal Court

Researchers have found that defendants who don’t “swear by Almighty God” when in court run a higher risk of being found guilty by jurors who themselves swear by God. In countries such as Britain and Ireland court witnesses must declare they will provide truthful evidence, but those

Scottish academics have called for judges to stop directing juries to take body language into account when assessing the credibility of witnesses. Sixty-four mock juries were set up for research, featuring a total of 863 participants. Half of them were shown a recorded rape trial while the remainder

There have been just under 50 convictions for juror intimidation in Ireland in the past five years, according to new figures. Information provided to Catherine Murphy TD by the Department of Justice shows that there have been 210 prosecutions under section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 since 2

A solicitor sitting on a criminal jury has been jailed after researching a defendant online and sharing her findings with other jurors. Caroline Elizabeth Mitchell, whose actions led to the collapse of a child sexual abuse trial, has resigned from her position as an associate solicitor with Irwin Mi

A high-profile trial concerning evidence given to a Stormont committee about the Nama property scandal will be heard without a jury in an unprecedented step. Former Sinn Féin MLA Daithi McKay, Sinn Féin member Thomas O'Hara and loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson are facing a Crown Court tri

The claim that juries subscribe to rape myths and are biased against complainants has no basis in empirical fact, a new study has found. The work, undertaken by academics at University College London, is also informed by research that casts serious doubt on the value of mock juries as a proxy for re