Disadvantages Of Trial In Australia

Ch 6. Advantages and Disadvantages of trials by Jury or by Judge-Only – Self representation.

As commented in the previous chapter, in order to avoid jury misbehaviour, impartiality, and possibilities of mistrial, etc, there is the option of shifting to judge-alone trials.

Some Australian jurisdictions with the consent of the accused, choose this option.

Either the defendant or the Crown may apply to the court for a "trial by judge order",. The court will make a trial by judge order if both the defedant and the Crown agree to you being tried by the judge alone.

In order for the court to make a trial by judge only it must be satisfied that the defendant has sought and received advice about the effect of such decision by an Australian lawyer.

• An emotional jury can actually be good when the defendant wants to have them to feel emotion for the crime. As mentioned above, jurors are directed not to get emotionally involved, but while deliberating, no matter what they are told, they still use their emotions. Better for cases where the defendant has major public support or simphaty.

• Jurors have more space for interpretation and what one thinks is beyond a reasonable doubt another may not see it the same way and this can lead to a long time for a jury to come back with a verdict.

• There have been a number of high-profile judge-only trials recently, including that of Simon Gittany, who was found guilty of murdering his fiancée, cases like this have prompted legal experts to consider the value of judge-only trials and examine the limitations of trial by jury. Gavel Tostee, adhered to trial by Jury, with a different outcome.

• Pauline Wright said “jury trials were still “the preferred” system in all Australian states and this is because ensures community participation in the administration of criminal law”, disagreeing with this, the above mentioned Ian Lloyd, QC, said: “most jurors won’t go into a court trial revealling they have looked up information on the internet, but of course they do.” And “juries are swayed by many different factors which are not always logical or

• The trials are usually longer .

• The rule of jury secrecy, also known as the exclusionary rule, prohibits a juror from discussing the deliberations in the jury room, based on public policy considerations requiring that the verdict of the jury should be final, ensuring that jurors are not subjected to pressure or harassment. The rule is a convention or rule of conduct rather than a rule of law, and it is reinforced by statutory provisions that make it an offence to disclose or solicit information about jury deliberations, creating a very difficult terrain for lodging an appeal unless an error of