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The juror is personally known to a party or a witness.
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The juror has a conflict of interest or bias.
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The juror is disqualified, e.g., due to a criminal conviction.
Challenges for cause are rare and are scrutinized by the trial judge who decides whether the juror should be excluded. Although peremptory challenges no longer exist, the judge can still stand jurors by for consideration (effectively sidelining them) in certain cases, particularly if concerns about fairness or impartiality arise. Additionally, the jury vetting process allows for some background checks in limited circumstances (usually national security or high-profile cases), but this is strictly regulated.
At the time of my appointment I had to state on the application which party I had voted for in the previous general election. That requirement was abolished some years later. I suppose in the minds of the "great and the good" who drafted such questions a politically balanced magistracy was an enhancement to the concept of all people being equal under the law. In today`s England the great and the good are more interested in whether you consider yourself white Welsh or brown Indian or perhaps black African. Three incubating disturbing trends which are likely in my opinion to be major factors in our society by 2030 are the disillusionment with the two main political parties, the rise of a minority although vociferous Muslim minority seeking protection for Islam as a religion under the law and a corresponding rise in ouvert antisemitism camouflaged as anti Zionism precipitated by the reaction to the Hamas massacre of October 7th 2023 in Israel such racism having been shown historically to be a prelude to underlying societal breakdown or worse.
How likely or unlikely would it be for the verdicts of controversial trials to be determined on the political bias of jurors as quoted above by PA? It is my opinion that that alone is an argument for dispensing with jury trials at least in such cases as happened in Northern Ireland during the Troubles when Diplock Courts were established. The alternative would be adopting the American system where jurors can be excluded .
As with so much of everything that is British, changes will be made only when the powers that be have been hurtled into a situation either unforeseen or facing problems that have been swept under the carpet for them and the rest of us to forget.
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