From: "John Hurst", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I knew there was a historical right, in fact obligation, on a
>jury to judge both fact and law but was unsure if it still
>applied or whether this freedom like so many others in the UK had
>been eroded.
Alex,
Jury nullification is alive and well and hiding in the "Code for
Crown Prosecutors". The CPS have to asses the likelihood of a conviction
before they can continue a case. If a properly directed jury is not likely
to convict, the case should be discontinued.
The police are bound to make a similar assessment when deciding to charge a
suspect. There is a "Guide to Case Disposal" which sets out the rules for
that.
And the first line of protection for the subject is the common sense of
individual police officers. Some people say that the amount of common sense
to be found diminishes further up the chain of command, but I could not
possibly comment <G>.
Regards, John Hurst. www.magnacarta.demon.co.uk
"The facts embodied in Magna Carta and the circumstances giving rise to them
were buried or misunderstood. The underlying idea of the sovereignty of the
law, long existent in feudal custom, was raised by it into a doctrine for
the national State. And when in subsequent ages the State, swollen with its
own authority, has attempted to ride roughshod over the rights or liberties
of the subject it is to this doctrine that appeal has again and again been
made, and never as yet, without success."
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