Juries 'should hear phone taps' to nail crime gangs

[Brian Morrison]

On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 19:12:31 +0100, David Hansen wrote:

>It is a familiar conceit for the government side of a balls up to 
>say, "We know they are guilty really. They only got off because of 
>the stupid jury/Fiscal's incompetence/bent lawyers/stupid judge/(add 
>other excuses here). We have evidence that we can't tell you about 
>which shows they are really guilty."

Indeed, and of course there have been a number of changes to the law
intended to reduce people's ability to defend themselves against this
type of argument, such as right to silence, trial by jury, double
jeopardy etc.

It's simple, in English Law if found not guilty then that's it, and no
amount of 'but we know that they were guilty' changes that. Under
Scottish Law there is that rather handy verdict of Not Proven.

-- 
Brian Morrison                                       bdm@fenrir.org.uk
              do you know how far this has gone?
               just how damaged have I become?
                                      'Even Deeper' by Nine Inch Nails