So there I am this weekend, filled with the intent to listen to radio 4, but then it dawned on me that the word "morning" doesn't exist when it comes to the weekend - talk about falling at the first hurdle! /sigh. Maybe I’ll be far more successful with my trip to Winchester Crown Court! What was looking for is an opening, a sentencing or a summing up by the judge - either way it sounds genuinely interesting. Anyway! Down to the notes!
During this lecture we've been told about something which is as amazing as a double rainbow - this is "Qualified Privilege" this means that you cannot be sued for what you say! Frankly, that sounds like the best thing ever, us journos must be in love with this, I know I am!
In any case, I have a feeling this is gonna be a very short blog post! This is because I believe I’ve mentioned most of the lectures key points in my older blog posts! This was also covered in the reading I’ve been doing.
Key Notes:
- Presumption of innocence "beyond all reasonable doubt"
- Magistrates court = Minor Cases
- Crown Courts = Major Cases
- Cases can be done in private - for example rape cases and cases that cover particularly sensitive issues are usually not made public
- Evidence based justice - this is the right to have the evidence given in a case tested by the jury; this is held up by a source of the UK constitution known as the Magna Carta.
Criminal Court: The Jury must give verdicts based on evidence given. There is no jury in a magistrates court, a Jury is only present in Crown court. While the Jury are involved in a case, they have to go through a media blackout. Which means that they must not watch the news, read newspapers, go online in anyway. This is because people writing articles on the case will condemn someone before the jury has reached a verdict - this is going to affect how the jury will vote if they've seen that people believe someone to be guilty or not.
High Court: "You can always judge how much trouble you're in depending on the length of the wigs" - Chris Horrie. Barristers are the ones who talk in the High courts - judges essentially act as arbiters in the high court - insofar as they decide on literally everything in a case. Such as: the evidence that can and can’t be put forward, to keep the court on track and not get distracted and, among others, once the jury has reached a verdict the Judge is the one that gives out the sentence - just tells to jury to go home.
Crown Court: Indictable cases are done by magistrates and this court hears appeals. If you've been charged with, for example, a fine for not having a parking ticket or something then you can, instead of paying the fine, appeal to have the case taken to a crown court - this is very time consuming.
Contempt of Court & Strict Liability: Contempt of court is a strict liability offence.
Contempt of court = impeding the courts justice in anyway, for example shouting out from the "audience" or trying to sway the jury. Or as Chris put it, giving the death stare to a member of the jury saying "if you say guilty, I'm gonna get you". Strict Liability = you cannot use the defence "I didn't mean to" you have no excuse to get you out of a strict liability offence, such as drink driving.
Prejudice: Very important concept in Law, with people MUST NOT DO. It literally means to "pre-judge “something - so basically don’t jump to conclusion! Otherwise people will feel they are guilty before trail. A prime example of this would be the Joanna Yates case the media instantly targeted and pre-judged a man who basically looked "creepy" and probably was the guy who did it based on their appearance. Prejudice is pretty much Green Kryptonite, as in it makes Superman die *sad face* so it therefore kills court cases. So don’t do it yeah?
So yeah, thanks for reading! I’ll blog sometime soon and not let myself go this long without blogging ever again, promise... kinda :)
Bye and stuff x
Good
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