Removing juries: 'A move towards an authoritarian state'

Summary

This week the justice secretary, David Lammy, announced sweeping changes to the criminal justice system that will significantly reduce the number of jury trials in England and Wales. Under the radical plans, jury trials will be reserved for cases in “indictable-only” offences such as murder or rape, and “either-way” offences (those where the defendant can currently decide whether they will be tried by a jury or magistrates), with a likely sentence of more than three years in prison.While Lammy backed down on plans to remove jury trials for all cases involving a maximum jail term of five years, the move has led to an outcry from MPs, lawyers and campaigners. The Guardian spoke to a range of people who have seen juries’ work close up about their experiences and the proposals.The defendantAbrar Javid, one of the Rotherham 12 who fought with far-right extremists after attending an anti-racism protest in Rotherham and were cleared of violent disorder in 2016Abrar Javid remembers seeing the jury who would try him and the other men of Pakistani heritage who had been arrested and charged with violent disorder after a clash with Britain First demonstrators.High-profile grooming gang trials had brought infamy to Rotherham and a spotlight on its British Pakistani community. Britain First had organised 14 protests in the town over a year. In August 2015, Mushin Ahmed, 81, was murdered in a racist attack.“As defendants, we were really concerned,” Javid says. “We thought we would be up against a jury with certain stereotypes about Pakistani men from Rotherham, even though we had absolutely nothing to do with the grooming scandal. We thought it was hook, line and sinker, we were done for. Slam dunk.”But over a six-week trial the all-white jury listened carefully, he noticed. “They seemed quite a good mix of young, old, men, women,” he says. Finally, all 10 men who were on trial were found not guilty. Two men who had pleaded guilty applied to change their plea and the prosecution o...