Pell case shows juries should go

The Covid-19 crisis has put a stay on many jury trials. If we were sensible, the High Court’s judgement to overturn the conviction of George Pell should result in the end of them forever.

Imagine designing from scratch a system today for society to determine an accused’s guilt. You would be laughed at if you suggested you should go out on the street and pick 12 people at random and make them listen to evidence and legal submissions and then be locked in a room until they came up with a verdict and you did not require them to give any reasons.

People take comfort in the fact that a jury’s verdict has to be unanimous. But modern psychology on herding and leadership nullifies that comfort. People like to belong. They do not like being on the outer. We evolved that way to survive in the wild. People like being led. We cry out for leadership. It only takes one or two to lead the rest into agreement.

It would be an interesting experiment to randomly pick 12 people to hear the same evidence as a jury and ask them not to speak to each other, but individually deliver their “verdict”. My guess is that unanimity would be rare indeed.

One of the worst things about our jury system is its secrecy. No-one is allowed to research how juries behave. Surely it would do no harm to have CCTV secretly running for jury deliberations and handed to researchers under conditions of confidentiality.

We have elevated juries and their decisions so much that they are almost sacrosanct. It is extremely difficult to get a jury’s decision over-turned.

A court of appeal cannot overturn a jury verdict just because it would have decided the other way. It cannot substitute its view of the evidence for that of the jury. Rather it must find that the verdict was unreasonable or cannot be supported on the evidence or that the verdict was not reasonably open on the evidence.

It is an extremely high bar. And it reveals a deep flaw in our system. What about the presiding judge in a jury trial? The judge hears all the evidence. Surely, if the evidence was such that it could not be reasonably open for a jury to find guilt, the judge should be able to work that out and not allow the case to go to the jury. The judge should enter an acquittal instead.

Why didn’t the judge in Pell’s case do that? If you read the High Court judgement, you would conclude that that is what should have happened.

But judges rarely do this, such is the sacrosanct nature of the jury. Perhaps they think that confidence in the legal system would be eroded if judges took cases away from the jury too often.

On the legal tests on the nature of appeals from jury verdicts, the High Court in Pell’s case merely cited previous cases with approval and did not attempt to elucidate, expand or change them.

But it took an approach that in effect amounted to the judges taking on the role of a jury. The lion’s share of their 15,000-word judgement was a detailed analysis of the evidence. It was the sort of work and analysis that you would hope a jury would do, but for the obvious fact that most jurors plucked from the street are simply not qualified or intellectually equipped to engage in that sort of concentrated detailed analysis, let alone explain it in writing.

And they are not trained to put aside emotion and prejudice.

We expect and demand a skill level for virtually everything in society these days: doctors, lawyers, surveyors, electricians. plumbers, fork lift drivers etc. We demand people be qualified with a certificate to prove it. And they are accountable and can be sued if they mess it up. They have to explain themselves. But not a jury.

We are happy to pick 12 people randomly – they could be PhDs in logic or idiots off Bondi Beach in the midst of the Covid 19 crisis. More likely the latter. Anyone with an ounce of brain can get off jury duty. And usually the sort of people who would be qualified to do a juror’s role are in occupations that would grant them an excuse not to.

The Pell case should make people question juries. The High Court as good as accused the Pell jury of being irrational.

It said that granted the jury accepted the complainant’s evidence as “thoroughly credible and reliable”, the issue was whether the “compounding improbabilities”, such as the lack of opportunity for Pell to have committed the crime shown by the unchallenged evidence of people at the cathedral, “required the jury, acting rationally, to have entertained a doubt as to the applicant’s guilt”.

In short, a rational jury should have acquitted. How many irrational juries – plagued by emotion and prejudice – convict the innocent or acquit the guilty?

The Law Council of Australia, the peak body for the nation’s lawyers, rushed to defend the jury system. It said the High Court applied “a technical legal test to determine whether the verdict was unsafe”. It said that nothing in the Pell case “has overturned or diminished the crucial and primary responsibility of juries”.

I beg to differ. There was precious little “technical, legal” stuff in the judgment. Rather, it was a detailed look at the facts and evidence and the replacement of the irrational conclusion of the jury with the rational conclusion of the judges.

Not many people will read the judgement but if you do you can easily see why there was enough reasonable doubt to acquit. 

That the High Court in effect behaved like a jury and did a good job of it raises the question of why shouldn’t all accused people have the advantage of their guilt being determined by rational judges. Ninety per cent (the less serious ones) already are – by magistrates. Why can’t the more serious cases be judged by a judge and, say, two qualified assessors who have to give reasons for their decisions?

Finally, the jurors in the Pell case might well ask: “Why did you drag us off the street to do a long hard job we are not qualified to do with poor pay and conditions when you are going to second-guess us anyway? Why not abolish us?” Indeed, why not?

Crispin Hull

This article first appeared in The Canberra Times and other Australian media on 11 April 2020.

4 thoughts on “Pell case shows juries should go”

  1. Because, Crispin, lawyers.
    They already have too much power.
    We don’t trust them.

  2. On balance most of us would prefer to be tried by our peers rather than by a member of the upper class and let’s face it judges are drawn from a very narrow stratum with little street-level experience of life.
    The problem is, as you rightly point out, that juries are no longer a reasonable selection of responsible citizens and the conditions under which they are expected to form a verdict are ridiculous: truck loads of evidence and bus loads of witnesses instead of a focus on the relevant facts. The latter issue is the result of lawyers’ incomes and careers, both defence and prosecution, being tied to winning cases at any cost to taxpayers or clients.

  3. Interesting to read your recent opinions. George Pell and trial by Jury and of
    course, the hand clapping religion of our silicone coated Prime Minister.
    Reading the paper today, I read your opinions first. I always do.
    However, reading the rest of the paper ; Pell’s Easter message
    And Scott Morrison’s full on religious zeal sermon, it was apparent to me how alike they really are.
    Arrogant, egocentric, condescending , patronising, self serving…..I could go on forever.
    I have just studied the Fall of the Roman Empire. I wonder if these two consider themselves The Royal “we”. The imperial link between the people and god ,” the chosen ones.”
    Then I read George Pell’s Easter Message.
    “ Why is there so much evil and suffering and why..did..this..happen..to..me..”
    Where is this man’s humility, personal responsibility, empathy for the victims he
    Turned away. What arrogance! He now considers himself a victim.
    So…..now I am glad that Pell had a Jury.
    It did result in him being gaoled for a year but it was always believed that legalities of
    Reasonable doubt would aquit him. However , reasonable doubt is not innocence.
    The legal system is sometimes too smart for its own good, not always bringing
    Justice. The jury brought justice for the people.
    I am one of the 30% non religious but I do have a social conscience.
    I enjoy your opinions.
    Cheers

  4. Never agreed, Crispin. Now I do. Kiefel, Keane, and Co scoffed at Judd, thereby the jury, all day. Who needs it? Let judges take the rap, in-house.

    The home-team evidence couldn’t alibi Pell for the exact day(s). The jury knew in spades, it was small opportunity, with risk attached. They believed the witness, who took full fire, not the defendant, who sent out his bestie, Portelli. In full law, whether or not in truth, we know now that they were way out of line.

    Twelve of us punters have accidentally given the Church a huge boost, to spin the yarn they’ve “learnt” and “changed”. Their commercial, schooling, discrimination, concessions will be piled even higher. Again, let some judge do it. Not convinced they’ll reveal the truth any more often, but no longer care.

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