Page 5741 - Week 17 - Thursday, 5 December 1991

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PATRONISING THE JURY

10. The court system should cease patronising jurors. The, whole process

of ng the-jury in, the deck must cease. -me jury squid be .

W3 -with- a transcript of the evidence. Expert witnesses should be allayed to present their written briefs. Their evidence slid not be selected for them by a lay person and the jury should be encouraged to peruse case summaries which are commonly handed up to the trial judge prior to the hearing., I do not, however, favour Victim Impact Statements going to the jury.

11. One of the justifiable bases for keeping a jury in the .dark is the rule that similar .fact evidence, that is; evidence which tends .to- show a

- disposition on the part of an accused to commit an offence similar to

that with which he or she is charged, is generally-inadmissible on the

grounds that it may prejudice the trials For this reason, persons

charged with the same offence involving different. victims are

sometimes-tried sequentially aril tie jury is lteptiii dark. , Caftful ,r ::.

thought should be -given to revising this rules In vile tunes, All -

would probably be known. Canberra is not far different from the

village erg ark-few jurors in-this Territory would Mnaint*nurunt.of

serial charges, so careful thought needs to be and economy of the rude.-.

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