Jury Trials !

Many would agree with the contention that " the law is an ass. "  As any lawyer will tell you, nothing is settled and the law rests on an ever increasing plethora of judgements decided in our overlapping pyramid of courts.

Just such an issue arose this week in the New South Wales District Court when a sexual assault claim was heard by a jury of nine men and three women.   It was claimed that this hasppened seven years ago between a policeman, on duty and wearing his uniform at that time and a colleague of junior rank.

It is alleged that the policeman went to the womans home, grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her down a corridor to a bedroom and sexually assaulted her.  That jury deliberated for an hour and a half before acquitting the policeman of the charge.

The accused former policeman was in the dock and his accuser was sitting in the public gallery of the court.  The acting judge took the unusual action of addressing the woman from the bench after the jury returned its verdict.

The judge acknowledged that she would likely be disappointed  but she should not think the jury had branded her a bad person or that her character had been besmirched in any way.  He said her offered this comment " as a matter of common humanity ".

The prosecution had argued that the accused would have known the woman was not consenting and her account of events that evening should be believed.   The defence lawyer had claimed exactly the opposite and it seems that the jury had decided that the woman's version of events was in a number of ways strange and hard to accept ".

That is exactly how our justice system was formed when Magna Carta was forced on King John of England in 1215.  Guilt or innocence was placed in the hands of, not a judge but a jury consisting of " those of our peers ".Ordinary men and women chosen at random who needed to be convinced by the evidence presented.

In todays world that justice has been corrupted by the influence of money.   Lawyers with the advanced skills to sway a jury charge accordingly for their services and are out of financial reach for many accused.  Despite that shortcoming, any case going to trial does not have a guaranteed outcome.
The human mind will be the deciding factor between guilt and innocence  !   Just as Magna Carta intended  !