Why are the various parties in the south hell-bent on agreeing a government by Friday? That’s because the Special Criminal Court will have run its course very shortly and the government in the south needs to meet and reinstate the Special Criminal Court.
What’s so special about the Special Criminal Court, you ask, Virginia? Well, it’s special for what it has and what it hasn’t. It has not one judge, not two, but three. Pretty impressive, eh? On the minus side, the Special Court doesn’t have a jury.
So why bother with juries in any court? Well, the idea is that it helps make sure that the values and standards of ordinary people are reflected in the justice system. The concern for these values and standards are set aside when the case is left up to three judges.
This has come about, we’re told, for the protection of juries. If the court wasn’t three judges alone, the ordinary citizenry in the jury would be open to intimidation by powerful criminals. So too would the judges, except they’re just three, not twelve, and they probably have police protection already.
I’d be open to the argument that juries might be intimidated, if they bring in a guilty verdict for a powerful criminal. But to exact revenge, a powerful criminal would have to know who were the jurymen and women. If we can set up protective screens against Covid-19 to protect the public health, it shouldn’t be beyond the wit of the justice system to set things up so the identity of the jury is protected. What about all those identification parades we see on cop shows? They happen with a two-way mirror. Why can’t something like that be used?
For the same reason that in a US election, each state elects a number of delegates, and they have the final say about who is president. Hillary Clinton for example whacked D Trump by a whopping million and more votes throughout the US. But when the delegates from each section of the US came together, they figured they’d rather have Trump. Put simply, the presidential election system in the US doesn’t trust ordinary people, and likewise in the south of Ireland, the Special Courts show that the ordinary people are not to be trusted. There’s no reason why the jury can’t remain anonymous and return its verdict, except that the Special Criminal Courts figure three judges must be wise and impartial, in ways that common folk can only dream about.
But here’s the thing. If the Special Courts in the south are so necessary, how come criminal gangs in the south seem to be thriving? The right to be tried by a jury of your peers shouldn’t be cast aside lightly: most judges are about as far away as you can get in terms of understanding the circumstances and life-style of the person in the dock.
Power is a dangerous commodity, and should be given to only those who are in touch with and understand the lives of the people under trial. Your average judge brings these qualities to any case? Don’t make me laugh. Any man foolish enough to wear an eighteenth century wig should be regarded with suspicion by everybody.Besides, the Special Criminal Court doesn’t seem to have had much luck in inhibiting the sale of drugs and the lethal activities of drugs gangs in the south.
I rest my case.
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