Pubdate: Thu, 07 Sep 2000
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd
Contact:  250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Author: Adrian Rollins, State Politics Reporter

LAW WILL LET DRUG DEALERS BE JURORS

Frauds, pornographers, sex offenders and drug dealers could all sit on Victorian juries under legislation to be passed by parliament.

Under a bill set to be approved by the upper house, the pool of potential jurors will be expanded to include people on bail for summary offences.

Shadow attorney-general Robert Dean said the move would undermine public confidence in the jury system and was an affront to the community's belief that people facing serious criminal charges should not sit on juries.

"Summary offences are serious and people charged should not sit on juries until their charge is determined," he said. "How will a victim of crime feel if the defendant is acquitted and later he or she finds out that someone on the jury was pleading guilty to an assault or sexual crime?"

But Attorney-General Rob Hulls accused the opposition of hypocrisy and of trying to undermine a basic principle of the justice system.

"Any person charged is innocent until proven guilty and it is very difficult to argue that a person on bail for a summary offence should be treated any differently," he said.

Mr Hulls said under existing laws people on bail had been able to serve on juries but the government, in line with a recommendation from the Law Institute of Victoria, had amended its legislation to exclude people on bail for indictable offences. He said a parliamentary committee chaired by Liberal frontbencher Victor Perton in 1996 had made a similar recommendation.

The upper house last week amended the government's legislation to exclude all people on bail from serving on juries. But the Legislative Assembly passed an amendment to exclude only those people on bail for indictable offences. The Liberal Party has decided not to oppose the amended legislation.

Mr Hulls said the legislation also removed automatic exemption for doctors, teachers, ministers, nuns, pregnant women and dentists, as well as police.

It also abolished jury vetting, where police conducted background searches of potential jurors, and the requirement for unanimous verdicts in murder cases.

Law Institute of Victoria president Tina Millar welcomed the changes.

"It is disgraceful that so few people are now obliged to sit on juries and it is vital that the pool be widened," she said.

Parliament has also passed amendments to new privacy laws exempting state MPs from the legislation.
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