Trial Without Jury

[Weazel2006 28]

Find this article a little suspect

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8106590.stm

 

I draw attention to one part in particular. That having the police protecting witnesses and jury members might not be adequate insulation from the accused or those associated with the accused managing to do harm or manipulate the trial.......WHAT THE HELL!.

 

That sounds much like the mob with their hand in everything.

 

Is it right for the justice system to resort to this kind of trial because the suspect is too manipulative of those making a judgement.

 

Your thoughts please

[DuncanSmith 10]

Precedent has been set. This will be the fitst of many jury-less trials and one day it will be the norm

[HeadingNorth 11]

I'm very unhappy about this. If it is true that a jury cannot be protected from outside interference due to the nature of the trial, then I might - very grudgingly and reluctantly - accept that it has to happen. But I will take an awful lot of convincing that it is impossible to do so. Why can't the jury be kept at a hotel in an undisclosed location for the duration of the trial - on a volunteer basis? (In other words, people can claim excusal simply because they don't want to be stuck in a hotel for that long, rather than needing a hefty reason as they normally would.)