Where is Falconers evidence that juries have stymied fraud trails?
The relatively swift investigation and indictment of Conrad Black on fraud charges to be judged by a jury in Chicago is in stark contrast to the Labour government’s determination to abolish juries in serious fraud trials in Britain. Extraordinarily, none of the government’s senior law officers can explain why the Chicago prosecutor expects a jury to convict Black while a British jury would be incapable of understanding an identical prosecution. Propelled by prejudice, ignorance and phoney research, the government is guided by what it this week bizarrely called a “more holistic approach” to remove a right granted 800 years ago by the Magna Carta. Embarrassed by a spate of acquittals and compelled by the Treasury to save money, the government hopes, by abolishing the statutory protection, to tilt the balance in favour of securing convictions by a judge sitting alone. Yet the government’s decision is not based upon any evidence that juries have stymied fraud trials. On the contrary, Lord
