I don’t attribute it to them being thick, Gromit. It’s a separate argument to consider the competence of people in general to sit as jurors. There was no pomposity on my part. The jury has to be sure beyond reasonable doubt in order to convict. We’ll never know, but I strongly suspect that these twelve did not acquit because they thought the defendants were innocent but because they were not sure of their guilt – which is somewhat different. I know this can apply to any offence a jury considers. But offences of this nature are so complex that often financial experts are not sure of the law.
Yes it’s true that you don’t have to be a driver to consider guilt in a motoring offence. But the law in such matters is far more straightforward: “The speed limit is 30mph and here is evidence to prove that the driver was doing 40mph”. If jurors cannot understand what is alleged – not because they are thick but because the allegations are very technical – they can hardly be expected to judge whether a transgression has taken place and that’s what I strongly expect has happened here. It took them just 90 minutes to reach their verdicts after hearing evidence for more than three months. My belief is that they simply exclaimed “we haven’t a clue what this is all about so, since we are unsure of their guilt, as directed by the judge, we must acquit”. And I don’t see that as a very good basis for justice.
I take your point, youngmaf, that measures would have to be in place to ensure "professional" jurors do not acquit on the basis of "We were mates when we both worked at Megabank" or "That could easily be me standing up there". But I think they would be more easily overcome than the problem of lay jurors sitting on complex financial cases which they have not a hope of understanding.