Closed petition Mandate ethnic diversity in jury selection where minorities are defendants.

Closed on 3 May 2017

The view that currently underpins jury policy in England & Wales is that a randomly selected jury is most likely to be representative and therefore most likely to be impartial. However several studies have shown that it is in the nature of random selection that some juries will be unrepresentative.

This particularly applies to cases involving defendants from ethnic minorities. Random selection from a populous where 87.2% of people are white, naturally results in a high likelihood of white-only juries. This raises conflicts in cultural norms and community values. Parliament needs to ensure that this imbalance is removed and one is judged by 'a jury of their peers' to preserve equality, fairness and overall confidence in our legal system.

https://goo.gl/vZxgqS
https://goo.gl/EbKEld