My only experience of being on a Jury was for a mugging where the accused was identified by a number of people including his co-accused, who had admitted guilt. We were advised by the court that due to his co-accused admitting the crime, he was, at the very least, guilty by association. Aside from this, there were numerous eye witnesses and he was stopped by the police while running from the scene and still in possession of the stolen goods. From the facts presented I was certain that he was guilty.
While we as a jury were deciding how to answer the Court's question of his guilt, a number of worrying statements were made. One person stated that even if we as a Jury we unanimous in our decision we should tell the court it was a decision by majority so that we could claim to have voted not guilty should we be met in the street by the accused at a later date. Another wanted us all to vote not guilty as a guilty verdict could ruin the accused's life. A number of others, although voting for guilty were openly uncomfortable in choosing to send someone to prison.
If these thoughts are occuring to Jurors when the trial relates to a crime most of us wouldn't dream off, how many more start having them when you could picture yourself being in court for similar reason. Such as driving offences.
As it turned out, when we the Jury had given the court our Guilty (by majority) verdict, we were told that he had been delivered to court from Prison where he was currently serving time for a separate incident of violent robbery.
