Criminal appeal in the NZ Supreme court regarding police vetting of jurors.

In The Supreme Court Of New Zealand Sc 32/2008 [2009] Nzsc 20 Deborah Gordon-Smith V The Queen

[1] This appeal concerns the practice colloquially known as jury vetting. Both the Crown and the defence have statutory rights on the empanelling of a jury to challenge prospective jurors on a peremptory basis (as well as for cause). They are supplied in advance by the Court with a list of prospective jurors. Both Crown and defence are able to make such inquiries as they think fit, and as are consistent with law, to obtain information upon which challenges may be exercised. In some parts of the country, in preparation for trial, the police examine the jury panel list to see whether any potential juror has a criminal conviction. This case is concerned with that process. The police may also obtain other information about individual jurors but we are not concerned with the lawfulness of that kind of inquiry. Where jury vetting is undertaken by the police, they supply an annotated jury list to the Crown setting out the result of their inquiries. The Crown prosecutor uses the information supplied to assist in exercising the Crown’s rights of peremptory challenge.

The appeal is dismissed.

B The formal answer given by the Court of Appeal to question (iii) is amended to read: The Crown should disclose to the defence any previous convictions of a potential juror known to it, if the previous conviction gives rise to a real risk that the juror might be prejudiced against the accused or in favour of the Crown. Disclosure should not otherwise be made.

Read The Full Judgement Here - Deborah Gordon-Smith v The Queen, Criminal Appeal. pdf

ENDS

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