INDIGENOUS JURORS QUOTA
16-Jul-2006
17 July 2006. 12:54:18, SBS Radio
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=130286®ion=7
The New South Wales Law Society says a Sydney lawyer's call for changes to be made to Australia's jury selection procedures could lead to a serious miscarriage of justice.
Stewart Levitt, who is representing the alleged ring-leader of the 2004 Palm Island riots, says a minimum quota of indigenous jurors should be considered for all cases involving Aboriginal people.
Last week he successfully lobbied for his client Les Wotton's trial to be moved from Townsville, because jury members were found to be unable to ignore prejudice towards Palm Island Aboriginal residents.
But the president of the New South Wales Law Society, June McPhee says changing the current random selection process could create biased juries.
"If you tamper with that and have a weighting or an allocated position on the jury for particular sectional interest groups, it interferes with that tried and true formula. And we can get a very distorted view and they're not truly representative of the community," Ms McPhee said.
