The Juryman's Tale Book

Every year in the United Kingdom, a quarter of a million people are summoned to do jury service. Some go reluctantly, some willingly, but all should be aware that they are taking part in a legal tradition that dates back to before Magna Carta. Trevor Grove, formerly an editor of the Sunday Telegraph, was summoned to serve as a juror in a trial at the Old Bailey involving the kidnap of a Greek shipping magnate and a $3,000,000 ransom. But there were many doubts about whether the victim was really so innocent as he seemed. The Juryman's Tale is a thrilling first-hand account of what it is like to serve on a jury in a major criminal trial, with all the twists and turns, shock and suspense of a John Grisham novel. But it also develops into a passionate defence of the jury system. Grove's defence is made all the stronger by his willingness to admit the imperfection of this very human institution: "Juries are clumsy, fallible, expensive and slow". But the greatest legal minds have always understood this, and still concluded that the jury is "the lamp that shows that freedom lives" (Lord Devlin); "the sacred bulwark of the nation" (Sir William Blackstone); "a peerless teacher of citizenship" (Alexis de Tocqueville). Grove's caustic and unarguable conclusion is that, at the very least, "Any Prime Minister who refers to The People as often as Tony Blair does ought to approach the jury box on bended knee". --Christopher HartRead More