Trial by TV: You be the Judge

Anne Robinson last week presented You be the Judge, a Channel 5 programme designed to show the flaws of our sentencing system. The trials of four disparate cases – the murder by a youth of his ex-girlfriend; a manslaughter of a stranger; a death by dangerous driving; and the case of a Just Stop Oil protester – were re-enacted in a peculiar-looking courtroom. 

The sentences were then discussed with panels consisting of retired judges, victims’ relatives, retired (presumably) criminals and ex-detectives, with Robinson chipping in.

The trials were odd. Because of time (and cost?) constraints, mitigation seemed to be half a dozen sentences at best. The trials took place in a court of four: judge, defendant and two counsel. Nowadays, it seems, barristers in England and Wales leave their seats to come forward and address the judge.   

If anyone thought this was going to be a balanced programme, they were quickly disabused. It was victims all the way.

Victims’ relatives talked a good deal about ‘justice’ which, since it is now generally accepted that no single method of punishment will prevent recidivism, has very often come to be a synonym for retribution or damages. In this case, retribution.

In the end, no one was really satisfied. The murderer had his sentence increased by the Court of Appeal, and many panellists thought it should have been more. Some did not seem to understand that a minimum sentence did not mean release after that term, but depended on the Parole Board.

En passant, I see that Charles Bronson is to have his latest application heard behind closed doors, presumably because it is feared he will take the opportunity to play up to the camera if it is televised.

As for the panels, hours of discussion must have been left on the cutting-room floor until the producers decided on what snips they wanted. Unsatisfactory. We could have done with one fewer case. But there was time for a final diatribe from Robinson.

The programme is available online until August. You be the judge.

James Morton is a writer and former criminal defence solicitor