STRAW'S RESTRICTIONS ON JURY TRIALS

Sir, I am very concerned about the Home Secretary's plans to change
the procedure for deciding the venue for criminal cases (leading
article, "Jury's out", May 20).

The right to jury trial is a crucial safeguard at the heart of our
criminal justice system. It ensures that when individuals are
confronted by the power of the State they are judged by their fellow
citizens, not the State's appointed representatives. The Government
appears to wish to restrict this precious right to save costs just at
the time that it was decided to promote rights by announcing the date
that the Human Rights Act comes into force.

It has been said by the Home Secretary that the right to a jury trial
is being abused, but this assumes that the Government is entitled to
decide how we exercise our rights and should have the power to take
them away if we use them in ways that it judges unacceptable.

Juries ensure that the criminal justice system is not dominated by
professionals. Instead ordinary people decide on guilt or innocence.
The absence of sufficient numbers of magistrates from ethnic
minorities also makes the cultural mix on most juries an important
safeguard for black people who are often faced with courts that are
otherwise made up entirely of white professionals.

Yours faithfully,
JOHN WADHAM, Director, Liberty,
21 Tabard Street