Lawyers who refer to jury equity in a trial speech would be exempt from contempt proceedings under an amendment to the Courts and Tribunals bill tabled by human rights campaigner and Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti (Shami Chakrabarti), it has emerged.
The amendment was prompted by the high-profile contempt proceedings issued against Garden Court Chambers’ Rajiv Menon KC, representing a Palestine Action activist, for his closing speech during a trial at Woolwich Cown Court. The Court of Appeal stayed the contempt proceedings to allow an appeal by Menon against orders by three judges to be heard.
Defending Menon at a launch event for the Criminal Bar Association’s Black Barristers’ Committee last week, chambers colleague Keir Monteith KC, founding chair of the committee, said Chakrabarti's amendment would prevent advocates who refer to jury equity in their speeches being prosecuted for contempt or sanctioned. Chakrabarti was a guest speaker at the event.
Chakrabarti's proposed clause states that in a criminal court before a jury, 'no advocate is prohibited from reminding the jury of the principle of jury equity' and they cannot be held in contempt of court or sanctioned if they do. Jury equity is defined as 'the principle that jurors cannot be required to reach a verdict of guilty by reason of any judicial direction or any threat of sanction'.
A committee of the House of Lords will commence line-by-line scrutiny of the bill today.
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