Media Statement For immediate release Friday, 23 January, 2004

Smith: Pressure defendants to testify

While not opposed to the Government suggestion of 11-1 jury verdicts, United Future justice spokesman Murray Smith today said applying pressure on defendants to give evidence would have far more impact on cutting the number of hung juries.

"Quite simply, give the prosecution the right to make adverse inferences from the unwillingness of a defendant to address the charges directly and you would have far fewer hung juries," Mr Smith said.

"This is a more substantial issue than the perception of a rogue or aberrant juror.

"Yes, an accused person can maintain their silence - but their failure to engage in the pursuit of justice can and should count against them.

"The classic case in this regard, in my opinion, would be the John Barlow trials in the mid-1990s which resulted in two hung juries before murder convictions at a third trial. If he had been required to give evidence on pain of it being detrimental to his defence not to do so, I believe he would have been convicted at the first trial," Mr Smith said.

The concept of judge-only trials where juries might be intimidated was, however, fraught with difficulty.

"The downside of this suggestion is that it would be too easy for the police, where they think a judge-only trial has a higher likelihood of a guilty verdict, to manipulate the system," Mr Smith said.

Ends.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>