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By Warren Bertram
King's Counsel Peter Champagnie has suggested that jury duty notices could be served through the tax offices to improve juror turnout.
Mr. Champagnie believes most people are willing to serve as jurors if given the opportunity, and outlines that the means of getting the notices out should therefore be improved.
He said the current system of having police officers go door-to-door is both time consuming and costly.
Mr. Champagnie argued that since a number of Jamaicans have to attend a tax office at some point, it would be best to serve the notices there.
"Many of us are doing our business at the tax office on a routine or regular basis, and you can simply serve there. Why not? Because you're relying on the TRN... And that is why I say we have failed it, not that it has failed us," he suggested.
Some people have argued that the jury system has failed and should be discarded since not many people turn up for duty.
But Alexander Williams, President of the Jamaican Bar Association, believes some trials can benefit from having the perspective of jurors versus just the trial judge.
Mr. Williams contended that the evidence provided from witness testimonies can be better understood by a jury of people from similar backgrounds as the witnesses.
"Witnesses might refer to somebody in a particular way, and judging by the way they refer to the person, they know the kind of description that the person needs. ‘Him red.' You know, the judge might not understand what 'red' means, but the man dem in the jury know seh it mean a light skinned brown person," the attorney illustrated.
He maintained that depending on just the understanding of a judge can have its limitations.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Champagnie were speaking Thursday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond The Headlines.
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