JURIES IN CRIMINAL CASES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11687, 24 June 1901, Page 7

JURIES IN CRIMINAL CASES.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, Amongst the various causes which combine to bring the criminal law into disrepute, there is probably none more effective than the open display and confession of impote.'icy which we are continually witBering in the repeated trials of the same person for the same offence caused by the failure of juries to agree on a verdict. Our ancestors had no notion of 12 men being too fastidious to be able to say '"aye" or "no" to a bread question of fact, and the English common law was ready with rough methods to compel the sworn judges to nay one thing or the other. To such rough methods it is, o.i course, not desirable to recur: but there can be no doubt that the present system has a fatal tendency to encourage juries to shirk tin responsibilities, and to evade public criticism by the facile expedient of agreeing not to agree. The consequence is that an old and revered maxim of the law, which declares that no one shall be twice harassed for the same cause, is constantly and flagrantly violated. In a neighbouring colony a woman is now being tried the third time on the same charge a pitiable exhibition of the imbecility of our legal procedure. The required remedy seem, quite simple. The failure of a jury to agree should always be taken as a verdict of *' not proven," and such a verdict should entitle the accused to be discharged, but subject to be tried again if new evidence should be discovered. This would at all events mitigate a scandal which is becoming much too frequent, and it might help to impress juries with that sense of responsibility which they seem to be fast losing, knowing, as they do, bow caw it is to shift the business en to the shoulders of the next 12 men v.'ho may occupy the box. It may be hoped that- the neighbouring Commonwealth will rectify this defect in procedure: but, if not. there is no reason why we (should not effect some reform in New Zealand. The innovation required in this case would be very small, and a great Scandal would be avoided ; but even if the innovation wore much greater, we do not usually in this colony shrink from a little novelty. We have, with much convenience to everybody, reformed the constitution and procedure of coroners' juries, though wo still allow, and even encourage, them to travel into all sorts of regions foreign to the proper scope of their inquiry, and to believe that they fail in their <}u\y to their country if they do not add to their verdict an oracular " rider,'" which usually in point of intelligence falls * little short of the average mental standard of the man at the street corner. Hut perhaps, in permitting myself to wander into the subject of coroners' juries, I also may be thought guilty of irrelevancy. — l am, etc., .7. Giles. Palumahoe, Jim a 20, 1901.