The public cannot want the judiciary to be tough on crime, yet refuse to participate in the judicial system by not answering the call to serve as jurors, says Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham.
In his remarks to open the Legal Year yesterday, he said the Registrar and Chief Marshal had brought to his attention, that members of the public were avoiding their civic duty of becoming jurors.
“The public, on the one hand, correctly and properly holds the judiciary to an exacting and harsh standard. Yet, for the efficient functioning of the criminal system, we must have a sufficiently large pool of citizens from which to choose. So on the other hand, the Registrar and judges in the criminal division are now frequently bombarded with excuses of every conceivable kind to avoid the civic duty,” he said.
“So what do they really want? They have to make up their mind. You can’t have the luxury of sitting in your living room and don’t partake. So the call has to be made. They must be called out,” Sir Patterson said. (Nation News)