Interesting story in the Post on Crowns using the police to get detailed background on potential jurors:
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=2088553
The problem here is two-fold.
First, there is the perception that the Crown is not seeking a fair jury but rather one predisposed to convict. That may not be true, but the perception is there and it hurts the reputation of justice. This is especially so in light of the wrongful convictions in Canada.
Second, the practice is probably unlawful. Data collected for one use is not properly used for another. Here it seems various searches were run on confidential government records -- apparently including medical records! -- so as to pick jurors.
It is proper to reject jurors on many grounds. If a police officer tells a Crown, without a special search (or by doing a publicly available search -- say Google), that XYZ is a bad juror that's fine. But using government's resources created for one use in a totally different way is not ok.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
1 comment:
Clearly commenting on picking a jury has almost become a new profession. If as you suggest the police did a google search of me for instance they would find that I am a Green Party supporter. If for example this was a marijuana case and given that Greens believe that prohibition is a failure is this not politicising the criminal justice system.
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