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Speaker 1: From the UK, just as Secretary Lammy has suggested the

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Speaker 1: end of the jury trial except for rape, murder, manslaughter

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Speaker 1: or what he calls cases that pass a national interest test.

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Speaker 1: Now the idea has received the sort of reaction you

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Speaker 1: would expect from the usual court, as you would expect

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Speaker 1: it from now. My hope is we might want to

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Speaker 1: look at something a little bit similar here. Now the

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Speaker 1: weight like the UK for a trial in this country's absurd.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the system's overwhelmed. Getting a jury is hard work.

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Speaker 1: It's never going to get any easier. So if we

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Speaker 1: expect the system and it doesn't function in a way

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Speaker 1: that we would want, judge only I would have thought

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Speaker 1: would be an immediate improvement and efficiency. Could I also

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Speaker 1: be controversial and suggest the reality is that most people

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Speaker 1: who end up in court are in fact guilty of

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Speaker 1: what they're accused of doing, Which is not to change

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Speaker 1: the idea that you were innocent until proven otherwise. It's

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Speaker 1: just that you can mount a fairly solid argument that

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Speaker 1: a jury is made up of a collection of people

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Speaker 1: who may or may not want to be there, or

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Speaker 1: may or may not know what's really going on, or

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Speaker 1: may or may not get nuance and minutia I have

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Speaker 1: certainly aspects of the law, and therefore as a collective

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Speaker 1: be a fairly weak representation of the justice you seek.

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Speaker 1: In a way, it's like democracy if you think about it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we love the idea of democracy, but at

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Speaker 1: local body level, for example, we literally can't be bothered.

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Speaker 1: We don't even turn up. So is the idea still

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Speaker 1: a sound one even if it doesn't work being judged

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Speaker 1: by a jury of your peers? I mean, what a

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Speaker 1: wonderfully eighteen hundred style of thinking. But here in the

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Speaker 1: real world has got a very stale, arduous sort of

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Speaker 1: vibe about it these days. I would have thought, why

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Speaker 1: is it important that twelve people agree on something? Well,

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Speaker 1: it isn't, of course if they can't, because in some

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Speaker 1: cases you then make it eleven. Oh it's not twelve,

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Speaker 1: as it's eleven, and so the rules are malliable. In fact,

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Speaker 1: in some places in cases it's ten. So let's not

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Speaker 1: get all rigid because the law's been around for a while.

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Speaker 1: If the basic premise is justice being seen to be done,

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Speaker 1: then the doing has to have an element of pace

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Speaker 1: about it, not rush, not rubber stamped and open to

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Speaker 1: skull duggery. But an efficient system seen to be working

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Speaker 1: well now, you can't argue we have that, or anywhere

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Speaker 1: close to it. The UK has been bold, and good

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Speaker 1: on them. Let's hope the same boldness resides somewhere here

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Speaker 1: as well. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen

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Speaker 1: live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio