Ahern rejects specialist juries proposal

JUSTICE Minister Dermot Ahern has poured cold water on a suggestion by the Director of Public Prosecutions that specialist juries with expert knowledge of the finance industry be used in white-collar crime trials.

Mr Ahern said while he welcomed DPP James Hamilton’s comments on the difficulties involved in holding such trials, he would be reluctant to tamper with the existing jury system.

“We had special juries but we abolished them in 1927. The whole concept of a jury is that it’s 12 men and women are picked at random,” he said. “Other than the type of issues, like terrorist crime and gangland activity, I would be reluctant to take juries out of the system. They are the cornerstone of democracy.”

He added there would also be practical difficulties in finding jurors with specialist knowledge who did not know, have dealings with or move in the same circles as the accused given the small size of the country.

He said there might be a case for appointing specialist judges, but added: “The suggestion that we might have juries made up of specialists would lead to accusations of vested interests.”

Mr Hamilton made the suggestion arising out of concerns at the anticipated increase in white-collar crime trials coming down the line and the likelihood that they would be difficult for juries to follow, and take so long that empanelling a jury would be extremely difficult.

“The idea of asking members of the public to give up, perhaps, a year of their time to serve on a jury creates a real difficulty,” Mr Hamilton said last week.

It is believed that any change to the current jury system would require the holding of a referendum to change the constitution.

The minister said he was awaiting a more detailed submission from the DPP. He said he particularly wanted to know whether he believed there were deficiencies in the criminal law that needed to be addressed.