Jury List Had 300 Criminals

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 14

Jury List Had 300 Criminals

The new jury list of 22,112 names compiled from the electoral roll included the names of more than 300 criminals, a committee of Justices of the Peace was told at the Supreme Court yesterday. A police officer, Inspector N. Thompson, read from the jury list the names of persons convicted of practically every type of crime—ware-house-breaking, theft, false pretences, negligent driving causing injury, burglary, unlawful carnal knowledge, receiving stolen goods, assault, obscene exposure, car conversion and incest The sheriff (Mr J. L. Y. Gerken) obliterated each name with a red pencil. “You’ve got a lot of crooks there,” observed the chair-

man (Mr N. J. G. Speary, J.P.). “Every crime in the book,” agreed Mr Gerken. Mr Speary said that under the o>ld system the jury list was compiled by the police, and the names of criminals were weeded out before they got as far as the list Those ineligible were , persons convicted of crimes punishable by three years’ imprisonment, and undischarged bankrupts. To Revise List The meeting was held to revise the list and hear all objections, but Mr Speary had to make it clear to the more than 30 persons who attended that the committee could not exempt from jury service any except those who had a statutory right to exemption. That meant only women, those over the age of 65, the Infirm, and those to certain occupations.

Mr Speary said many had written to the committee asking for exemption on the ground of hardship or other reasons, but the meeting had no power to consider those applications, although that might not have been clear on the form sent out. He advised those persons to wait until they were called to the Supreme Court for jury service, and then apply to the sheriff. “You can then state your case to him,” said Mr Speary, “and to all probability you will be granted exemption.” When Mr Speary had described the committee’s powers, most of the applicants left. Only six remained to state cases to the committee, and of those, two were agreed to have a .statutory right to exemption on the ground of infirmity. Mr Gerken also produced a list of 45 persons whose names were on the roil, but whose qualifications for statutory exemption had only recently come to hand. They were also exempted.