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Disability |
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(Other than mental disability) disability is not a reason for disqualification or automatic excusal. |
S.9 (b) of the Juries Act 1974 (as amended) gives the judge power to excuse a juror whose disability will make it impossible for him properly to discharge his duties, and
S.10 gives power to excuse a juror whose command of English is not sufficient to allow him to follow the proceedings.
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Judge can discharge incapable juror |
Where there is some doubt about a potential
juror’s capacity to serve for example because of deafness, language problems,
the judge can discharge the person under Section 41 Criminal Justice & Public
Order Act 1994. |
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Deaf not entitled to be jurors:
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In 1999 Jeff McWhinney, a deaf man challenged a decision made by
staff at Woolwich Crown Court that he could not sit as a juror because of his disability, failed to have the decision overturned.
The judge said that she
did not consider that Mr McWhinney would have any difficulty in following the
trial with the assistance of an interpreter. In the United States, deaf people
have been able to carry out jury service for a number of years. However, he should not serve on a jury
because current law prevents anyone other than the 12 jurors from being present whilst they consider their verdict and Mr McWhinney would require a sign language interpreter to be present so that he could take part in the debate.
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