"JURY-SQUARING"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17935, 14 May 1920, Page 6

"JURY-SQUARING"

PUBLIC SCANDAL IN VICTORIA. (From Odb Own Corhsspondent.) SYDNEY, April 13. The system of "jury-squaring" has become sp prevalent in Victoria that an agitation is afoot in that State to aJbolish the jury system of trying persons charged with orimes, and establishing instead a method of trial by throe judges.' It is not making much headway, however; the old British trial-by-jury dies hard, even when it ia used to defeat the ends of j-ustioa. According to the Age,, which has published several sensational articles on this subject, there exists in Victoria a corrfplote organisation for the oorruption of juries— The organisation is controlled by a man— the master mind—who is equally well known to the police, the members of the underworld, and, in a lesser degree, td the o»t----sido public. Publication of hie name would oause a sensation. Behind him there stretches a highly efficient network, the primary object of which is to secure a perversion of justice—when a sufficiently largo sum ia paid. The head of tho gang has under his direct control a number of agents operating in various suburbs, and through one or other the accused, person is approaohed and asked how much he will pay to have the* jury "rigged."' Tho police .know positively that these things are done —but everything is carried ( out so carefully and cunningly that it' is almost impossible to secure direct evidence. When the arrangement ia made with the criminal, the members of the jury are deftly approached. There is generally at least one man among 12 who is susceptible to tho'tbuch of gold. Presumably aware of their practical immunity from arrest the eiforts of the gang have recently been advanced with brazen effrontery. A reputedly wealthy man was arrested on a criminal charge. Ho was approached by a <member of the gang with the suggestion that he could secure freedom at the cost of several hundred pounds. There tvb* another case in -which the detectives were convinced that two jurymen were "squared." Two men, despite a strongly adverse summing-up by the jiidfre, wen? acquitted, and there is ground for believing that the price of the acquittal was £5000. The police, who are posrtive of the t-' u « of tho two men, say that tho bribe actually passed in cash.