CRIMINAL TRIALS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 July 1924, Page 5

CRIMINAL TRIALS.

MAJORITY VERDICTS. AN AMENDING BILL.; (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, July 16. The Juries Amendment Bill, which provides that a majority of five-sixths may be accepted in criminal cases, except capital cases, was before the Legislative Council to-day. Moving the second reading, the Hon. J. M. McGregor said this was the sixth time the measure had been before the Council. He quoted opinions of judges of the Supreme Court in support of the proposal, and recalled a recent case in which a jury twice disagreed, and there was no further success when the case was removed to another centre. It was reasonable to assume that this was due to the prisoner having a friend on the jury. The proposal was justified if only because of the saving in the expense of retrials.

The Hon. 0. Samuel opposed the Bill, maintaining that there must he unanimity. No jurist- celebrity favoured an alteration of the present system, and the proposals would not effect any irnprovement. Unanimity was essential to the liberty of the subject, and the great majority of English-speaking countries supported that principle. The proposal was not justified for the sake of saving a few hundred pounds in retrials. The Leader of the Council (Sir Francis Bell) was entirely in favour of the Bill in the interests of justice. He expressed the opinion that by far the greater number of those practising in the courts of law would supnort the measure.

The Hon. J. Hislop said that before any alteration was made the necessity of the change should be demonstrated. It would be a backward step to alter a law that had. prevailed for a thousand years and which had operated to the benefit of those who might be innocent. The Bill was read a second time.