ACT to introduce new penalties for jury misconduct, like that which ended high-profile rape trial last year

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Jurors who break the rules in Canberra courts are set to face stiff penalties including possible time in jail under a new law to be introduced by the government. Other changes ahead will allow for majority jury verdicts ending the compulsory unanimous verdict rule in the ACT.

Transcript

00:00 The change was prompted by the collapse of a high-profile trial that had run for weeks.

00:08 A sheriff in the ACT Supreme Court discovered by accident that a juror had brought unauthorised

00:15 research material into the court.

00:17 But efforts to penalise the juror fell flat when it emerged the ACT had no penalty against

00:24 the misconduct.

00:26 Now jurors who do the wrong thing will face penalties, including up to two years in jail

00:32 and as yet unspecified fines.

00:35 This offence is designed to make it very clear to jurors that they should not do their own

00:39 research.

00:40 The change has been welcomed, though not everyone thinks it's entirely necessary.

00:45 The Law Society's Criminal Law Committee was of the view that the contempt charges that

00:51 already exist under our law, in common law, were sufficient to capture a circumstance

00:57 of juror misconduct.

00:58 Another significant change will allow for majority jury verdicts.

01:03 Currently, juries must reach a unanimous decision to deliver a verdict.

01:08 The change means the courts will accept a majority of 11 to decide a case.

01:14 It does mean if you've got one juror who is an outlier, you can still proceed with a trial

01:18 effectively and not have to have a whole retrial process.

01:21 The reality is that all the other jurisdictions in Australia have adopted some form of majority

01:27 verdict in recent time and this certainly doesn't seem to have been a great deal of

01:34 or any rise in miscarriage of justice or anything of that nature as a result.

01:40 The result all agree should be fewer hung juries and much less expense, emotionally

01:46 and financially.

01:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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