A MAJORITY VERDICT.
What is generally considered as bad taste and apt to create public prejudice against a Judge is any reflection cast from the Bench on a jury^ which may have had the temerity to assert its own independence, and to have conscientiously given a verdict opposed to the almost expressed wish of the wearer of the ermine on the Bench. The latest affront from an overbearing Benoh to an apparently well-meaning jury, or a majority of that jury, comes from Palmerston N., where, last Tuesday evening, the Grand Jury empannelled to enquire as to the question of a true bill or otherwise m the case of John Jarvis Gillies, charged with being the perpetrator of the explosion at Nathan's factory at Bunny thorpe, some time ago, by a majority found "no bill" against the accused man. His Honor, the Chief Justice, after having previously informed the. jury that a majority verdict would be ac-
cepted, said he would have to accept their decision, but added that if the evidence submitted to the Grand Jury was the same as that tendered m the Lower Court, then there had been a great failure of justice. Though suoh a remark, falling even from the lips of "Sir Robert Stout, is suoh that would justify "Truth" m taking His Honor %6 task, It can be made to serve a far more useful purpose.
Parliament, just at present has before it an Amending Bill of the Jury Act, which provides for a tnreefourths majority verdict m criminal trials, where a jury after three hours retirement cannot agree. As was pointed out by "Truth" last week such an Act will practically revolutionise the administration of criminal justice m this colony, and will be liable for many grave miscarriages of justice if adopted. Majority verdicts, even of a Supreme Court Bench, are always sought to be avoided. Unanimity m every instance is earnestly desired: - If majority verdicts of a Supreme Court Bench are deemed so unsatisfactory by even the Judges themselves, how much more dangerous must that of a common criminal jury be, where the liberty or even the life of the prisoner at the bar is concerned ? If so high a judicial officer of the Supreme Court, as Sir Robert Stout, ventures the assertion that the majority verdict of a Grand Jury which finds no true bill against an accused person is tantamount to a miscarriage of justice, how dangerous an expedient it would be to decide grave criminal issues on a majority verdict of an ordinary jury. Sir Robert Stout's utterance at Palmerston N. must receive the earnest consideration of every legislator ere by his "aye" he consents to such an unprecedented measure as that proposed by the Minister of Justice. If a Grand Jury's majority verdict is capable of bearing such a construction as that placed on it by the Chief Justice what are* the public likely to think when a majority of common , juries m criminal cases convict or acquit a prisoner ? Is not the very fact tHat'dissentients to that verdict ;exis,t, sufficient reason to suggest' &; -. failure., of justice ?
Sir Robert Stout has, from the Bench, on mOire than one occasion expressed the conviction, after a criminal jury has disagreed, that the Jury Act should be so amended as to admit of a majority verdict. Whether it is upon the representations of the Chief Justice that the Ward Government is acting as sponsor to the Jury Act 'Amending Bill cannot be said ; but it looks very much like it. If the majority verdict of the Grand Jury at Palmerston N. bore the aspect of a failure of justice, can Sir Robert give any assurance that if the Amending Bill becomes Law, he will not be called upon to express a similar sentiment on the majority verdict of the common jury. It is to be feared that no such assurance can be honestly given. The majority verdict of a Grand Jury is always unsatisfactory; majority verdicts from a common eriminaljury would be something damnable. Therefore it behoves the Ward Government to be careful. In pushing such a matter forward, it is riding for a :fall. Sir Robert .Stout's Palmerston N. utterance" is timely, and legislators must weigh very carefully the cbnseguences- of passing such a bill.
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Bibliographic details
NZ Truth, Issue 65, 15 September 1906, Page 4
Word Count
714A MAJORITY VERDICT. NZ Truth, Issue 65, 15 September 1906, Page 4
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