Lammy plan to slash jury trials criticised by his expert adviser

An expert adviser to David Lammy’s review of racism in the criminal justice system has criticised the justice secretary’s plans to remove jury trials for most crown court cases in England and Wales. Prof Cheryl Thomas KC of University College London found as part of the Lammy review that juries were the only part of the criminal justice system that was unbiased when it came to race and ethnicity.

- John Simpson Home Affairs Editor

Leaked proposals last week revealed that Lammy, whose independent review of justice outcomes for black and ethnic minority groups called juries a “success story”, plans to scrap jury trials in every instance other than rape, murder, manslaughter and select cases that pass a public interest test.

Reacting to the plans, which follow a report by retired judge Sir Brian Leveson aimed at addressing the courts backlog, Thomas said: “One big thing that’s come from my research is that juries are the one part of the justice process that does not treat people from different ethnic backgrounds differently.