Malta has a long history of trial by jury. Our forefathers petitioned the British Crown for the introduction of the jury system in 1811, leading to its being adopted as one of the bedrocks of this country’s judicial system in 1815, albeit at the time restricted to trials in the Court of Piracy.
Today, trial by jury is embedded in our legal system for all those cases where a person is charged in the Criminal Court with an offence carrying a punishment exceeding 10 years’ imprisonment. (Those charged with an offence carrying a punishment exceeding six months may also opt to be heard before the Criminal Court but this is rarely invoked in practice.)
It has been reported that lengthytrials by jury are costing the taxpayer as much as €3,000 every day. Sources close to the court administration have complained about the length of time taken by the latest trials, with the last three taking from 15 to 19 days to resolve at a total cost of between €45,000 and €57,000. Previous trials used to take between 10 and 14 days, an average of 12 days, as opposed to17 recently.
It is the presiding judge who decides the pace of each case. The duration of trials, however, is dictated by various factors, not least the number of witnesses as well as the nature and complexity of the case, with certain homicide cases, for example, tending to take their time.
In the recent, lengthier cases, lawyers strongly defended the measured pace of Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi, who presided over the trials by jury last year, explaining that he thus ensured that members of the jury were not mentally drained or put under undue stress when dealing with complex cases.
The issues raised by the report on the cost of such cases concern the mundane but important matter of taxpayers’ use of public funds and value for money. However, they also highlight the crucial matter of the right to afair trial.
The right to a fair trial is a cardinal requirement of the rule of law. It is a right to be enjoyed, obviously and overridingly, in a criminal trial (but also in civil trials) where one or more parties may suffer serious consequences if an adverse decision is made.
Intrinsic to this is the centuries-old concept of jury trial where a defendant is put before an impartial jury of (nine) “good men and true” and evidence is called against him or her. The jury decides, after hearing witnesses, including the defendant, whether he or she is guilty. The right to a fair criminal trial is the birthright of every Maltese citizen. A price cannot be placed upon it.
The role played by the presiding judge in ensuring a just trial is crucial. The difference in costs between an average of 12 days for a trial to be completed and the recent reports of an average of 17 under Mr Justice Mizzi does demonstrate a considerable proportionate increase in time over earlier trials. However, the actual costs incurred are insignificant in overall public expenditure terms.
Provided the presiding judge’s exercise of careful due process in jury trials is not shown to be administratively deficient or dilatory, one cannot, and should not, cavil at the time taken to conclude proceedings because the judge is protecting vital defendants’ rights to a fair trial. In a liberal democracy, that cost is always justified to uphold the rule of law.