JURY'S UNUSUAL ACTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 238, 8 October 1941, Page 4

JURY'S UNUSUAL ACTION

ANNOTATIONS ON BILL (P.A.) TIMARU, Tuesday. The action of the grand jury in placing the letters "N G" beside two of three counts in returning a true bill in the Supreme Court to-day, created what was probably an unprecedented position and one which, had the common jury decided to convict on either of those counts, would have involved recourse to the Court of Appeal. The incident occurred during the trial of Charles Edward Solomon on a charge of arson. Although a true bill had been signed apparently without qualification, said Mr. Justice Blair, the annotations might have meant that the jurors, who were fully conversant with legal procedure. intended to return a no-bill on the first and third counts. If the common jury, therefore, brought in a conviction on either of those counts, he would have to state a case for the Court of Appeal. The common jury eventually brought in a verdict of guilty on the second count and no further development will take place.