Juries 'more lenient' to minority defendants
British juries are more likely to be lenient to suspects from minority backgrounds
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Wednesday, 13, Jun 2007 12:39
Jurors in British trials are more likely to be lenient to defendants from minority backgrounds, new research has found.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham concluded that the British jury system does not discriminate against those from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds and, if anything, there is a tendency to compensate for perceived biases in the criminal justice system.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) commissioned the research, which also found there were no differences between the reaction of white and black people when summoned for jury service.
Black and minority ethnic groups are "not significantly under-represented among those summoned for jury service or among those serving as jurors", the MoJ said of the findings, adding that "racially-mixed juries' verdicts do not discriminate against defendants based on their ethnicity".
"Juries and the jury system are vital to justice," the lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, said of the conclusions in Diversity and Fairness in the Jury System.
"This unprecedented study is highly encouraging. It strongly suggests that juries and the jury system are working, and working well.
"People want the justice system to provide outcomes which are fair, unbiased and balanced. There is no complacency about justice or the justice system - but this study suggests that juries and the jury system are delivering those objectives, and delivering justice."
Michael Zander, Emeritus professor of law at the London School of Economics, said he believes the four-year study is "very significant".
Speaking on the Today programme, Professor Zanders, who carried out a peer review of the report, said he found the results of the study "encouraging".
"We all come into the jury room with prejudices and biases, we're human beings, but I think the most encouraging finding of the study is that despite all of this, what gets ironed out in the discussion and deliberation in the jury room is the biases get moved away and the decision comes out the right way," he said.
"In other words the biases don't affect the ultimate decision; I think that's one of the key findings of this report."