tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post668569348569832425..comments2024-03-28T07:16:39.621+00:00Comments on Lallands Peat Worrier: The Bastard VerdictLallands Peat Worrierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18276270498204697708noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-73359243446357541982013-09-05T23:22:55.329+01:002013-09-05T23:22:55.329+01:00I have just had to endure this bastard verdict whi...I have just had to endure this bastard verdict whilst serving as a juror and I completely agree with the position of this article. <br /><br />This verdict simply gives people an easy way out of making a difficult decision. It allows them to absolve themselves of any potential guilt and pass the buck onto the prosecution. This pathetic, cowardly verdict should be abolished so that jurors are forced to really examine evidence and make a real decision.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12407889524312605608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-89640721348284221992013-04-06T14:39:31.117+01:002013-04-06T14:39:31.117+01:00"One can sympathise with Rape Crisis Scotland...<i>"One can sympathise with Rape Crisis Scotland's position. As I said in the piece, some of their points are clearly compelling and justified. I don't think, however, we should give a free pass to organisations whose general goals we sympathise with, to peddle baseless nonsense in their pursuit."</i><br /><br />Blimey, be careful. I've been called a misogynist and a "rape apologist" for less than that...RevStuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03915111503712807257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-1900248132077197822013-04-06T14:34:57.714+01:002013-04-06T14:34:57.714+01:00Hoppy,
Is there any evidence whatever for your op...<b>Hoppy,</b><br /><br />Is there any evidence whatever for your opening gambit? The idea that our justice system operates according the the regime of "guilty by accusation" is risible, not least by dint of the data I charted above. Something shy of 100% conviction rate <i>even of those tiny % cases which make it into court</i>, wouldn't you say? The idea that it is "quite easy" to get a man arrested, charged, tried and falsely convicted of rape is also in the domain of risible fantasy. Concern about persons accused is perfectly reasonable. The tone of your comment, and the victimisation is fallaciously claims, is not. <br /><br />As to the rule of corroboration by distress, this always struck me as entirely reasonable, albeit an unnecessary, artificial way of getting around the corroboration rule. It's credibility is for the jury to determine.Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-76831372642202011652013-04-06T14:22:07.437+01:002013-04-06T14:22:07.437+01:00Riotgrrl,
Much there I sympathise with. On corro...<b>Riotgrrl,</b><br /><br />Much there I sympathise with. On corroboration, as I've blogged here before, I don't share the entrenched opposition of the legal establishment to its abolition. Generally speaking, I've found those defending its retention - whatever other safeguards might be introduced - are seriously overstating its efficacy as a protection for accused persons. That said, I do worry, as I've described at more length elsewhere, that the promise of justice associated with the bare abolition of corroboration is something of a fantasy. Not a zero sum game, perhaps, but a call to reality about what abolition might achieve. The same goes for me here. One can sympathise with Rape Crisis Scotland's position. As I said in the piece, some of their points are clearly compelling and justified. I don't think, however, we should give a free pass to organisations whose general goals we sympathise with, to peddle baseless nonsense in their pursuit. Your point about adversarialness is interesting and well-taken. In many ways, the 2009 Sexual Offences Act was arguably a missed opportunity to think in a more radical way about these issues. Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-91511084885674516802013-04-06T00:56:35.206+01:002013-04-06T00:56:35.206+01:00The rights of an accused person to a fair trial ar...The rights of an accused person to a fair trial are automatically reduced by a "sex crime". Guilty by accusation. In graph #2, perhaps 47% OR MORE of the accused are innocent. The law states that "showing distress" is now evidence - be that genuine distress or otherwise!! This makes it quite easy to find a man guilty even where the sex was consensual. This, combined with the Scottish Criminal Justice System pushing, unfairly, for statistics, puts men in a very vulnerable position. European statistics. Could it be that less men are guilty in Scotland and more females falsely accuse than the Euro average? We don't want rape to happen (I myself have two daughters) but we need to be careful and protect the innocent, the wrongly accused, too.hoppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15326471488470488343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-36036613588476079412013-04-05T16:25:36.698+01:002013-04-05T16:25:36.698+01:00Reducing the number of verdicts available to two w...Reducing the number of verdicts available to two will not (you are correct) do anything to tackle rape myths and rape culture. Neither will doing away with the need for strict corroboration. Neither will increasing the majority required for a jury verdict. Nonetheless, I support all three changes as the start of a long overdue modernisation process of Scottish criminal law. Until we had devolution, for 300 odd years, Scots criminal law was all-but frozen, as there was little time or appetite at Westminster for the kind of constant tweaks and process changes that national criminal justice systems normally undergo. Now we have a devolved Parliament, this process has started. I'd like to see review go far wider (personally I would do away with the adversarial system all together and adopt a more continental way of doing justice. Perhaps even without juries at all). But it seems the conservative (small c) lawyers that work in criminal justice in Scotland are going to oppose every single change proposed by the Government which might make the process better and fairer for victims and witnesses. <br /><br />I wish people would understand that it's not a zero sum game. The rights of an accused person to a fair trial are not reduced by also considering fairness for victims and witnesses.Riotgrrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00311294806473051038noreply@blogger.com