h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The right to trial jury is an ancient brilliance and one that we should be proud of, it is a privilege that (in all & any legally permissible way) we should fight to keep.

Having been selected for jury service twice and served on several jury's I have great confidence in the English jury system and its jurors.

a english or welsh court orders jurors 9 weeks in advance. the jurors are then randomly selected from the electoral register and summoned to appear. most courts have more than 1 courtroom, so quite a lot are needed. for each case that calls a jury, a random selection of 15 jurors are chosen. the court clerk is given 15 cards with the jurors names on. the cards only give the name, jury number and postcode of the juror. the clerk then shuffles the cards, and calls 12 names at random to act as jurors. a lot of randomness goes on to ensure a fair trial.
when i worked as a jury officer at wood green crown court, i had a juror explain to me how she thought jurors were chosen. she was annoyed she hadn't been picked and said it was because that a racial cross section was wanted and as an older white woman she wasn't needed. it took a long time to explain to her that the cards given to the clerk contained no information on race, age etc. i still don't think she believed me...

xx

well ya say that, but when I was a juror at woodgreen there was this raster who spent a lot of time in the toilet using a herbal air freshener if ya get my drift, he didn't get picked for a single trial (i.e selected for the group of 15)

I should add that I thought the groups I did Jury service with on both occasions represented a fair cross section of society

it's all done at random from a computer file. it's the laws of probability. my mates mum did her service this year and didn't get picked for a trial until halfway through her second week.
did you bing the 'air freshner' to the attention of a court official?

xx

it was fun in the jury office. i dealt with expenses as well as the courts etc. did you know it's a 30 mile round trip from edmonton green to wood green? i was quite surprised when i got that particular expenses claim for juror mileage.
how long ago did you do your service?

xx

2 weeks at woodgreen & 2 weeks at harrow
woodgreen pre CPS
harrow post CPS

based on my own experience I have to say the quality of the prosecution has dropped now CPS in charge

yup...

not that i am biased, because as a court official i am impartial. i just can't let any feelings on a case slip through to a juror or member of the public.

xx

so perhaps instead of trying to reform the jury system H.M Gov should be looking at making the CPS more effective?

that is it in a nutshell.

xx

has anybody told H.M Gov this

happy dude it is not a privilige its a RIGHT and should enough people be conned into regarding it as a privilidge it will be abused more and more privilidges are earnt rights are given.

Privilege, from the dictionary: Syn: Prerogative; immunity; franchise; right; claim; liberty


so a right can be a privilege