I'm Not The Brightess

[ivor4781]

but why do they need a jury to deliberate whether these two muslim were guilty of murder
it was witnessed by dozens and recorded, how could they not be

[jno]

something to do with Britain having the rule of the law rather than gun law, I suspect.

[FredPuli43]

I know of no such rule as the one hour deliberating rule. I have known juries retire as a mere formality, in reality, and come back in the time it took them to get to the jury room and back; they acquitted. And juries make take a very short time to convict; in one old case of murder they returned in twenty-five minutes, the foreman remarking afterwards that they had decided far more quickly than that, but it didn't seem right, as the man would be hanged, to return earlier! With majority verdicts the minimum time before one can be accepted is two hours, but the Court of Appeal that some minutes should be added to that , to allow for the time that the jury took in getting to the jury room. In practice it would be very rare for a judge to direct the jury on majority verdicts after only two hours.

[FredPuli43]

And the answer to the OP is that the defendants are entitled to 'put the Crown to proof' in all cases, to have the prosecution call the evidence to prove guilt.

[sp1814]

FredPuli43

I stand corrected! I was repeating what I was told on another thread.

[FredPuli43]

Often the judge invites someone, on a quick straw poll of the jury, to act as foreman to ask questions which the jury have come up with during a trial. And often that person is also the foreman who returns the verdict. I once saw such an instant foreman ask "Why is defence counsel asking a lot of questions which have no relevance and which only serve to annoy us?" ! Must say, I was wondering that myself, and I was prosecuting LOL. But mostly the right to ask questions is sparingly used, and, when it is, it is often about local knowledge, for example counsel may be mispronouncing a local place name, or mistakenly calling a Street a Road when there is both a Road and a Street with the same name

[youngmafbog]

I was foreman of a jury (petty crime of checkbook fraud admittedly) the evidence was overwhelming and even the defending solicitor clearly believed her client to be guilty.

We filed in the room, elected me, I called back the clerk and we went back in as soon as she could get teh court reassembles. Which was not not very long!

[Mosaic]

Personally, I feel proud that the British Justice system did this following due process openly. Fairness takes time as well as intelligence. And as AYG says, doubtless our prison population will show them a warm and hospital welcome.