The Lord Chief Justice reflects on the role of the jury and the impact of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act when it came into effect.
In fact that Act can claim to have had a more beneficial effect on our criminal justice system than any other single piece of legislation. But if that Act addressed a lack of trust in the police, it has taken many years and a number of pieces of legislation to address a lack of trust that we had in the jury.
"All of this was a little unrealistic, for some at least of a jury were likely to know that if no mention was made of the defendant’s good character it was to be inferred that he had previous convictions and speculation about these might be more damaging than the reality.
Intractable problems arose for the judge when two defendants, one of good character and one of bad character were tried together. Lord Lane, when he was Chief Justice, solved the problem by telling defence counsel that he proposed to say nothing about the defendants’ characters and that it was up to counsel to deal with this in their final speeches. Lord Taylor held that this solution should not be followed."
