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Covid could cause jury service dilemma

A Covid-19 vaccination divide could cause problems for the justice system in the selection of jurors, a researcher says.

Dr Warren Young, who has co-led juror projects, said potential jurors who were not vaccinated, or declined to say, might be sidelined in the selection process and considered only if the court ran out of other jurors. But if that became known it could be used as a way to get out of jury service. Either scenario would be problematic, he said.

Justice Minister Kris Faafoi said the Government was not considering making Covid19 vaccination mandatory for jurors.

The court system is already under pressure to hear the backlog of cases, including jury trials, that Covid-19 restrictions compounded. Mandates were very strong legal requirements and their justification had to be carefully considered, Faafoi said.

Any expectations about vaccination status of jurors was included in a review of court operating protocols to put in place the Government’s Covid-19 protection framework (traffic light system), Ministry of Justice acting chief operating officer Tina Wakefield said.

Young said it was difficult to see how the solution could be found in administrative or policy changes. The Juries Act dictated the way juries were picked so it would have to be changed if the process was not suitable for Covid times.

Defendants might appeal against guilty verdicts if a jury was not selected according to the law, Young said.

The simple solution would be a law change to say unvaccinated people could not serve on juries, he said.

As well as the Juries Act, the Ministry of Justice had legal duties to assess health and safety risks in the workplace, and how to mitigate those risks, he said.

In some workplaces that has led to unvaccinated staff being dismissed.

Rotorua lawyer Christopher Macklin, who prosecutes criminal trials and convenes the New Zealand Law Society criminal law committee, said some difficult issues were looming for managing the court system generally and especially jury trials.

The society was awaiting guidance from the courts and the Ministry of Justice on a whole range of issues, he said. ‘There are going to be challenges ahead for sure,’’ he said.

Christchurch defence lawyer Ethan Huda said it raised issues that needed to be examined. The criminal justice system was heavily indebted to jurors and their safety needed to be considered, he said.

His comments were echoed by the deputy solicitor-general in charge of the criminal law group of Crown Law, Madeleine Laracy, who said with jurors a particularly difficult policy balance had to be struck because they were a necessary part of the criminal trial process, but serving could also be a significant imposition on jurors.

As Crown Law was the Government’s legal adviser, she would not comment on whether changes to the jury selection process or the law were needed. However, Laracy did say the general scheme of the current law was that people eligible to serve on juries should serve, and the criteria to exclude or excuse potential jurors were carefully set down.

The solicitor-general, who heads Crown Law, laid out guidelines for jury selection that said juries played an important role in legitimising and maintaining public confidence in the criminal justice system, and that included being impartial and representative of the community.

Who was in the pool from which jurors were drawn depended on factors including who answered jury summons but also, with Covid-19 becoming more common, the absence of a vaccine requirement could also affect the makeup of the jury pool, she said.

But given most people were vaccinated, it seemed unlikely a vaccine mandate for jurors would stop a significant number of people from sitting on juries, Laracy said.

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2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281711207933350

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