Proposed law changes that would limit the right to trial by jury are "greatly alarming" and breach the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the Magna Carta, says a leading criminal lawyer.
"The right to trial by jury is a fundamental constitutional right," Donald Stevens, QC, told the law and order committee considering the Criminal Procedure Bill.
The Government bill includes proposals to replace unanimous jury verdicts with an 11-1 majority and makes exceptions to the rule of double jeopardy, whereby a person cannot be tried twice for the same offence.
The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act gave the right to a trial by jury if the maximum penalty for an offence was more than three months' prison, he said in his submission. The Magna Carta guaranteed the right to trial by one's peers.
He said any suggestion that a case was too complex for a jury underrated the intelligence of the community. Dr Stevens said that in his 25 years as a criminal lawyer he had not found that juries had undue difficulty understanding complex cases.
Legislation considered in the bill would be struck down as unconstitutional in the United States and Canada, he said. "Why should New Zealanders have fewer constitutional rights than North Americans?"
The bill would also allow a trial by judge without a jury if a trial was going to take too long or if there was a belief jurors could be intimidated.
However Dr Stevens said juror intimidation was rare in New Zealand and could be countered by the sequestration of the jury, he said.
"That a trial may take too long is no argument to deprive a person charged with an offence of the right to trial by his peers."
The bill's proposal to decrease the number of challenges without cause allowed in jury selection, from six to four, would threaten the right to a fair trial by a jury which represented a fair cross-section of the community.
The number of challenges allowed should instead be increased, Dr Stevens said.
Changes to the rule against double jeopardy were also "fundamentally flawed", he said.
"The rule is designed to protect individuals from the excessive use of state power. It is ... contrary to fundamental notions of justice, to allow the state to subject an individual to repressive and repeated prosecutions."
Other changes to time limits for a defendant to give an alibi were unrealistic and unworkable, he said. "It is seldom that a bill is introduced into the New Zealand Parliament that makes this number of inroads into important civil rights," Dr Stevens said.
The bill has also been opposed by the Law Society. All political parties except the Greens have given it their support.
Justice Minister Phil Goff says the bill is one of the most important criminal procedure measures in recent times.
- NZPA
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