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Is it still the norm is England to require unanimous consent for criminal convictions? If not, then what was the reasoning for changing it and how is it differe

Is it still the norm is England to require unanimous consent for criminal convictions? If not, then what was the reasoning for changing it and how is it different from the original historical reasoning for unanimous conviction?

matthewheath 7y ago
Yes, the default position requires a unanimous verdict from the jury — all 12 of them, but the court may accept a majority verdict no less than 2 hours and 10 minutes after the jury retires. The unanimous requirement was changed by the Criminal Justice Act 1967[1] (the relevant section since repealed) for criminal proceedings and the Jury Act 1974[2] for civil proceedings (incorporating criminal proceedings as well). It's unclear why the number was originally set at 12 – historical research suggests the Danes set this number when they conquered parts of northern England and subsequent Anglo-Saxon monarchs simply continued it. Perhaps 12 was simply an appealing number, or maybe there were political considerations, etc. — it's impossible to know. As for why Parliament allowed juries to come to a non-unaninmous verdict in specific circumstances, it appears to have been influenced by the Morris Committee Report of 1965 according to Hansard[3]. Additionally (as mentioned in Hansard above), the Scottish legal system have had majority verdicts for juries for a long time prior to the change to England and Wales in 1967 so that may have had some influence on the Government of the day implementing a change to the jury system. Part of their concern was also down to "jury nobbling" - they felt that if one or two people were "nobbled", it would be fair to allow the remaining 10 to come to a verdict effectively disregarding the nobbled pair (this is also raised in the Hansard report above). -- [1] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/80/section/13/enacted http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/80/section/13/enact... [2] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/23/section/17 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/23/section/17 [3] https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/apr/27/clause-10-majority-verdicts-of-juries-in https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/apr/...
- brobdingnagians 7y ago
  Thank you for the detailed answer!

matthewheath 7y ago

Yes, the default position requires a unanimous verdict from the jury — all 12 of them, but the court may accept a majority verdict no less than 2 hours and 10 minutes after the jury retires. The unanimous requirement was changed by the Criminal Justice Act 1967[1] (the relevant section since repealed) for criminal proceedings and the Jury Act 1974[2] for civil proceedings (incorporating criminal proceedings as well). It's unclear why the number was originally set at 12 – historical research suggests the Danes set this number when they conquered parts of northern England and subsequent Anglo-Saxon monarchs simply continued it. Perhaps 12 was simply an appealing number, or maybe there were political considerations, etc. — it's impossible to know. As for why Parliament allowed juries to come to a non-unaninmous verdict in specific circumstances, it appears to have been influenced by the Morris Committee Report of 1965 according to Hansard[3]. Additionally (as mentioned in Hansard above), the Scottish legal system have had majority verdicts for juries for a long time prior to the change to England and Wales in 1967 so that may have had some influence on the Government of the day implementing a change to the jury system. Part of their concern was also down to "jury nobbling" - they felt that if one or two people were "nobbled", it would be fair to allow the remaining 10 to come to a verdict effectively disregarding the nobbled pair (this is also raised in the Hansard report above). -- [1] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/80/section/13/enacted http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/80/section/13/enact... [2] http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/23/section/17 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/23/section/17 [3] https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/apr/27/clause-10-majority-verdicts-of-juries-in https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/apr/...

brobdingnagians 7y ago
Thank you for the detailed answer!