<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>329510</docID> <postdate>2024-09-22 14:02:17</postdate> <headline>All-white juries: the glaring injustice with an easy fix</headline> <body><p><img class=" wp-image-279561" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/jury.jpeg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>An old photo, but what's changed?... "W<span style="font-weight: 400;">hat is being done about the 'all-white juries' when matters go to trial?</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">" asks Hugh Selby.</span></caption> <p><span class="kicker-line" style="font-weight: 400;">"A<span style="font-weight: 400;">ny indigenous Australian defending a criminal charge might well believe that with an all-white jury, the odds are tilted against them</span>," writes legal columnist <strong>HUGH SELBY.</strong></span></p> <p><strong>The<a href="https://aija.org.au/publications/the-australian-jury-in-black-white-barriers-to-indigenous-representation-on-juries/"> foreword</a> to an Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration mid-2023 report on the absence of indigenous Australians from criminal trial juries includes:</strong></p> <p><img class=" wp-image-271673" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/hugh-selby.jpg" alt="" width="426" height="350" /></p> <caption>Hugh Selby.</caption> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Senior Constable Zachary Rolfe had been charged with the murder of a 19-year-old Aboriginal man [Kumanjayi Walker] in his home…</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"[The] trial was conducted before a jury that did not include a single Aboriginal person…. First Nations people make up approximately one third of the Northern Territory population."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A report from a decade ago found that: “By the age of 23, more than three quarters (75.6 per cent) of the NSW indigenous population had been cautioned by police, referred to a youth justice conference or convicted of an offence in a NSW Criminal Court. The corresponding figure for the non-indigenous population of NSW was just 16.9 per cent. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"By the same age, 24.5 per cent of the indigenous population, but just 1.3 per cent of the non-indigenous population had been refused bail or given a custodial sentence (control order or sentence of imprisonment)â€. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Powerful but negative attitudes and influences that arise from skin tone, racial background, religious beliefs are, alas, an ever-present part of our existence. They are easy to see in our criminal justice system and media reporting. It would be wilful blindness not to see them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Any member of Mr Kumanjayi Walker’s community might reasonably believe that the odds in Mr Rolfe’s favour were tipped by an all-white jury.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Equally, any indigenous Australian defending a criminal charge might well believe that with an all-white jury the odds are tilted against them.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Legal systems work best when those living under them have confidence that they are fair.</span></p> <h3><span style="color: #800000;"><b>Sentencing</b></span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Given that around 90 per cent of all criminal matters are resolved with pleas of guilty, it is essential that those being sentenced, and their community, have faith in the sentencing process.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both NSW and Victorian Courts have sentencing protocols for indigenous offenders who plead guilty. The Victorian </span><a href="https://www.countycourt.vic.gov.au/learn-about-court/court-divisions/county-koori-court"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Koori Court</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> began in 2008 and now sits around the state. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since early 2022, the NSW District Court has had a specialist sentencing protocol for some indigenous offenders. It is not yet statewide. Called the </span><a href="https://districtcourt.nsw.gov.au/documents/practice-notes/221121District_Court_Criminal_Practice_Note_26.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Walama List</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, it creates a “Circle Sentencing†like environment in which there is a multi-interest conversation, including the offender’s community, about how best to sentence the offender so as to put her or him on a path that makes reoffending much less likely.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Because the actual sentencing is a judicial function, the attending Elders and Respected Persons will not participate in the determination of the sentence to be imposed. However, they may: </span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">provide cultural and community advice to the judge; </span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">assist the judge to understand the offender's cultural heritage, history and norms; </span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">offer support and advice to the judge on how the offender could improve connections with his or her culture and community; and,</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">assist the judge to identify culturally significant issues and culturally appropriate programs or supports that might be included in the Walama Case Plan.</span></i></li> </ul> <p>The court monitors the offender’s progress in the case plan. This aspect is similar to how specialist “drug courts†monitor those offenders who are striving to beat their addiction fuelled criminal behaviour.<br /> <i></i></p> <h3><span style="color: #800000;"><b>Jury trials</b></span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But what is being done about the "all-white juries" when matters go to trial? Law reform bodies around Australia have recommended:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">amending the law to ensure workable methods of calling up indigenous Australians to be jurors; </span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">reducing disqualifications to be a juror that are based on criminal history;</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">providing support mechanisms instead of disqualifying potential jurors;</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">providing, where needed, support with travel and accommodation (practical and financial) for people from indigenous communities when they are summoned for jury service; and,</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">enabling trial judges to respond to an apparently unfair jury composition. </span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">finding ways to increase the number of indigenous Australians on the electoral roll;</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">supplementing the electoral roll for the purposes of compiling jury lists with names from Centrelink and motor vehicle registry databases.</span></i></li> </ul> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s a lot of work. The essential first step is to prove that indigenous membership of juries is worthwhile for everyone. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Fortunately, there’s a way, following the path taken in Japan when it created its “jury†system of four jurors sitting with three judges in serious criminal matters. Those jurors are appointed for a fixed term and they are paid for their service as they take part in a number of trials.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Around Australia we could emulate that approach as follows:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amend the Jury Acts to permit a standing “pool†of indigenous jurors, called for a specified term, paid at a special rate;</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Establish a recruitment process that makes use of Aboriginal Legal </span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Services and community organisations to reach out to, and attract good juror candidates;</span></i></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amend the Jury Acts to be able to provide practical training to prospective jurors and "post-trial" mentoring debriefs where what happens in the jury can be deconstructed; and,</span></i></li> </ul> <ol> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Encourage a criminology research project to periodically assess the value of this approach over at least a decade.</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></li> </ol> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A small investment for a big return.</span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hugh Selby is the CityNews legal affairs commentator. His free podcasts on “Witness Essentials†and “Advocacy in court: preparation and performance†can be heard on the best known podcast sites.</span></i></p> </body>