The right of defendants to choose trial by jury for thousands of offences should be scrapped, Jack Straw has said.
Mr Straw, one of Labour’s most senior politicians, and a former home, foreign and justice secretary, said the right was a “ridiculous anomaly”.
He said it enabled defendants to “game” the system by electing for trial in the hope that they would be found not guilty by a jury or their victim would drop out because of delays.
He argued that the current Labour Government should consider removing the right amid a record backlog of some 68,000 cases which is causing delays of up to five years in bringing suspected criminals to justice.
“Rationally, there is no case whatsoever for giving the defendant a right to decide the forum for their [trial], to play the system. I would certainly go down that route,” said Mr Straw.
He admitted there would be a “terrible fuss” over ending a right that had been enshrined in the Magna Carta since 1215 but then the “waters would close over it”, predicted Mr Straw.
Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has ordered a review of the courts system – Tony Buckingham
His comments come as Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, is under pressure to tackle the record backlog of cases awaiting trial.
She has appointed Sir Brian Leveson, a senior retired judge, to lead a “once in a generation” review of the courts system in England and Wales to come up with proposals to cut delays.
One option to be considered is for a new “intermediate” court of a judge and two magistrates to try cases meriting up to two years in jail, removing the right to trial for thousands of offences including thefts, assaults and drugs.
The most serious offences such as murder, sexual assaults including rape, assault causing grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary would still go before a jury in the crown court.
Removing the right of defendants to choose their place of trial could be an alternative or additional measure.
Defendants often elect jury trials because they believe it gives them a better chance – either of acquittal or a lighter sentence, said Mr Straw.
“I’m not sure you have [a better chance]. But what that is also saying is that the quality of justice in the magistrates’ courts is poor, which I don’t accept,” he said.
He said there was “no case whatsoever” for allowing defendants in many cases of theft, assault and drug-related crimes to retain the right to opt for crown court jury trial and “play the system.”
“Imagine the justice secretary going back to Parliament and saying: ‘What I am going to do is give defendants the right to play the system.’ They would not do it. I have seen that happen time and time again,” he said.
Mr Straw himself mooted the idea of scrapping a defendant’s right to elect jury trial for the thousands of middle-ranking offences when he was home secretary under Sir Tony.
The measure was strongly opposed during its passage in Parliament, particularly in the Lords, and had to be dropped, but Mr Straw said he would have used the Parliament Act to bring it back and override the peers if he had not been moved to become foreign secretary. Lord Blunkett, his successor as home secretary, decided against resurrecting it.
Mr Straw’s comments come in this week’s episode of the video podcast series “The Lord Chancellors: Where Politics Meets Justice”, launching on Tuesday Jan 14.
In a wide-ranging interview with journalist Frances Gibb, he criticises Chris Grayling, the former justice secretary, as being “completely unqualified” for the job, saying he “set about wantonly destroying the probation service by a botched privatisation”.
On Israel and Gaza, he says that there needs to be a deal in which Hamas agrees to stop fighting, releases those hostages still alive and the bodies of those killed or who have died in captivity; and then for a longer term plan to “allow the Palestinians to have their own independent state of Palestine, which is both for Gaza and most of the West Bank”.