HC Deb 07 February 1887 vol 310 cc764-5
MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is the practice on criminal trials in England, either generally or in cases of a political nature, for the Public Prosecutor or his representative to order jurors to stand by; and, if so, in what cases and what extent?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE (MR. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)

It is the constant practice on criminal trials in England in all cases, whether political or not, to do what is practically equivalent to ordering jurors to stand by—namely, to suggest to the officer of the Court the names of those jurors whom the prosecution or the defence desire not to have called; in order that the panel should be gone through and exhausted before those jurors are called and either challenged or ordered to stand by. The right of the prosecution publicly to order jurors to stand by is undoubted; "Mansell v. The Queen" (8, "E. and B." 54) and such cases not unfrequently occur.

MR. M. J. KENNY (Tyrone, Mid)

asked where the law was laid down that prosecutors had a right to challenge jurors?

MR. MATTHEWS

said, that was a question of law, which it would be wise, he thought, if he declined to answer. It had better be put to some person learned in the law, like his hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General. The law on the subject was laid down in a case in 8, "Ellis and Blackburn."

MR. MAURICE HEALY

said, that the right hon. and learned Gentleman had not answered his Question as to what extent the practice of ordering jurors to stand aside was exercised in England?

MR. MATTHEWS

said, that the practice of suggesting to the officer of the Court the names of jurors who were not to be called was a general one, and the right was constantly exercised.

MR. HENRY H. FOWLER (Wolverhampton, E.)

asked, Whether the right hon. and learned Gentleman meant to suggest that the practice he had described ever publicly took place in an English Court?

MR. MATTHEWS

said, that he had already referred to the leading case in which it did take place. The case occurred at the Old Bailey, in which the right of the Crown to order jurors to stand aside was challenged and decided to exist.

MR. HENRY H. FOWLER

said, the right hon. and learned Gentleman had evaded the question as to the frequency of the practice. He was asking whether, in reference to what the right hon. and learned Gentleman had stated was a constant practice, it ever publicly took place in English trials.

MR. MATTHEWS

said, that it was clone by communication between the counsel on either side and the officer of the Court, and so far was in a sense a public proceeding.

MR. OSBORNE MORGAN (Denbighshire, E.)

wished to know the date of the case to which the right hon. and learned Gentleman had referred.

MR. MATTHEWS

said, that he was not prepared to give its date at that moment; but he assumed, from the fact that it had been reported in 8, "Ellis and Blackburn," that it had occurred somewhere in the "fifties."

MR. MAURICE HEALY

Is it the practice that each prisoner has an equal right with the Crown to challenge jurors?

MR. MATTHEWS

Certainly.