Brickbat: No Jury of Your Peers

British Justice Secretary David Lammy has proposed ending jury trials for most criminal cases, reserving them only for rape, murder, manslaughter, or other "public interest" offenses. Cases that currently go before juries would instead be handled by a new judge-only "bench division." The ministry cites a backlog of over 78,000 cases, and Lammy says judge-only trials would reduce delays for victims and defendants. But many lawyers warn the change would erode a foundational safeguard of the justice system and say the backlog stems from chronic underfunding of the judicial system rather than jury trials.

Comments

[Get To Da Chippah]

How long before they decide trials are too slow and expensive?

[Vernon Depner]

I believe they're still working on training and arming the Islamic Religious Police.

[JFree]

That's clearly the purpose behind eliminating jury trials.

[Liberty_Belle]

It will be much faster when they replace all the judges with AI. Musk can't wait.

[Vernon Depner]

When the criminals are replaced with AI, that will level the field again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Have they considered arresting more people for social media posts?

[AT]

That's why they're doing this.

Get arrested for social media posts.
Get tried for hate crimes.
Get judged and sentenced without a jury.

The ENTIRE point of this is to facilitate this Orwellian Caliphate they're working on.

[SQRLSY]

Do the Brits, like in AmeriKKKa, practically outlaw talking about "jury nullification"?

(You know damned well that judge-only "bench division" won't go for THAT subversive idea!)

Also note that the judge-only "bench division" is just about the exact same thing that you get from agencies here in the USA... You are accused of insider trading, for example? The SEC-"judge" will now hear your case, bought and paid for by the SEC! Your stock-picks made for you, WAAAAY too much money, so that PROVES ye are guilty! Next case!

[Mickey Rat]

This is coming from the so-called establishment progressive Left wing party of the UK. A basic civil right can be set aside on the excuse of fiscal convenience.

[mad.casual]

An 800 yr. old fundamental civil right.

Especially pointed after the "Zoomer" generation. Literally a government full of retrograde retards who can't possibly figure out a more efficient way to do things that people under the age of 15 do naturally and will sacrifice any/all human rights because of their own malicious stupidity.

Scalia warned that Christians and Conservatives would be branded as enemies of humanity. If he failed, it was to point out that it would be by humanity's actual enemies.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Yes, when the government holds all the cards. Their whining is hypocritical to the max.

* The government controls how many courts and judges there are.
* The government controls how many lawyers there are.
* The government controls how many laws there are.
* The government controls how many prosecutors there are, how many people are prosecuted, and for what crimes.

And yet the government whines it must eliminate jury trials because there aren't enough courts to handle all the prosecutions on the books.

The fact that the government finds jury trial inconvenient is the best possible recommendation for keeping jury trials.

[Don't look at me! ( Is the war over yet?)]

Is Britain one of those European countries that is laughing at Americans?

[Roberta]

Wait a minute...if it's not of public interest, can it even be a crime? Is it even an offense? Seriously, he's suggesting there are categories of offense that are not "public interest"? Then why do they exist?

[Stupid Government Tricks]

You're confusing "the public should know about these crimes" with "we don't want the public to know about these bullshit prosecutions". Both involve the "public interest".

[MWAocdoc]

"What is justice?" Lammy asked, and then washed his hands.