Japan Kicks Off Jury System Amid Controversy
TOKYO (AFP)--Japan on Thursday launched a jury system in criminal trials to
boost citizens' role in the judicial process, triggering concern over allowing
jurors to hand down the death penalty.
The system calls for six jurors, or so-called lay judges, randomly selected
from the pool of eligible voters to join three judges in district court trials
to issue both verdicts and sentences for crimes including arson and murder.
Justice minister Eisuke Mori said the change, part of the country's biggest
judicial reforms since World War II, aims to draw on "the common sense you
members of the public develop during everyday life."
Other criminal procedures have also recently changed, including increased use
of videotaping during police questioning to ensure greater transparency.
Until now three judges have issued verdicts and sentences in Japanese criminal
trials, but the process has often been criticized as remote and complicated and
at times out of touch with the public's sense of justice.
The Supreme Court said on its Web site: "With ordinary people taking part in
criminal court cases, trials are expected to become more comprehensible for
people and help increase public confidence in the judicial system."
The country's highest court has tried to raise public awareness about the
reform with movies and cartoons demonstrating how it would work.
But the reform has sparked fierce criticism from some legal experts.
Unlike the U.S. system - where jurors are asked to decide a defendant's guilt
but not a convict's level of punishment - the Japanese system will empower the
new lay judges to also sentence people to jail terms or even death.
Kimio Kajiyama, a Tokyo lawyer opposed to the change, said: "How come ordinary
people with little knowledge of the law can now deliver the death penalty? It's
too risky. It's like allowing amateurs to perform surgery."
Opponents also fear the new system will tempt defense lawyers and prosecutors
to use graphic crime scene images to sway impressionable jurors.
Many members of the public are also reluctant to be called up as jurors - now
a civic duty to be enforced by fines of up to Y100,000 ($1,056) for failure to
show up.
A poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily this month found 79% of respondents didn't
want to take part, with over 60% saying they wouldn't want to see graphic images
of a crime scene.
Some 650 people joined a Tokyo street rally Thursday against the change.
"I don't want to judge other people," said Minoru Inoue, 67, a former school
teacher who said he was picked as one of the first lay judge candidates. "I sent
back the envelope from the Supreme Court without opening it."
Critics also worry about a provision that obliges lay judges to a lifetime of
secrecy on their closed-door deliberations, enforced by a penalty of up to six
months in prison or a Y500,000 fine for violators.
The new system will apply to any criminal indictments made from Thursday
onward, and the first trials with lay judges are expected by July.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-21-090328ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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