§ 53. Major Procterasked the Home Secretary under what Statute juries trying a charge of murder are not permitted to separate until they have recorded a verdict; whether he will ascertain from His Majesty's judges their views as to the present-day appropriateness of this regulation; and whether he will introduce a brief Measure to modernise the methods of jury treatment?
§ Mr. LloydThe legal provision is contained in the Juries Detention Act, 1897. At that date Parliament decided to except capital cases from the Bill which gave the court discretion to permit the jury to separate in trials for other felonies. What force still attaches to the considerations which led Parliament in 1897 to that decision is a question which deserves consideration, and for the present I can only say that my right hon. Friend will have the matter carefully examined.
§ Major ProcterIs the Under-Secretary aware that in a recent case one of His Majesty's Judges expressed the opinion that the procedure was now out of date?
§ Mr. LloydThat is so, but a member of the jury in the case told my right hon. Friend that many members of the jury held very strongly the view that it was a very right decision that they should not separate.
Mr. De la BèreIs it not a fact that Juries are not treated with the courtesy and respect which they might expect on many occasions?