Jury Trials

Fairness

The ALBA Party opposes the Scottish Government’s proposals to remove trials by Jury for serious sexual offences including rape and attempted rape. The principle of being tried by a jury of your peers has been a fundamental pillar of Scots Law for centuries.

We value the use of citizens to assess the credibility and reliability of evidence, actions and thoughts of witnesses and of accused persons. It is vital that society understands and respects the decisions of juries and trust that they have reached a conclusion based on the evidence presented at trial, and only the evidence presented at trial.

The ALBA Party calls upon the Scottish Government to:

Pause steps towards removing jury trials where there are accusations of serious sexual offences.

Explain what “an acceptable rate of convictions” is

Provide examples of which criminal justice system they consider might have achieved such a rate.