揺れる英米刑事陪審（１） : 陪審員によるインターネット不正使用と公正な裁判

On November 19, 2010 the BBC news in the United Kingdom (UK) reported that the Lord Chief Justice of the UK had stated that “the internet could kill the jury system.’’ Then, 5 years later on June 23, 2015, an article in the US Chicago-Kent Law Review reported that many countries in the world today that use the jury system have a hard fight in preventing the illegal act by jurors known as inappropriate investigation and argument through the internet. Between 2011 and 2013, three cases in the UK that shook British juries occurred after the Lord Chief Justice had
expressed his concerns. Judges declared tougher penalties dealing with prison sentence detention as punishment defendants as a general rule. At the end of 2013, a change to the criminal statute of common law was proposed by a committee of both houses of the UK parliament. Representatives of five countries including the Britain and the United States gathered in London in 2014, and measures to prevent internet abuse by jurors were discussed. In 2015 criminal legislation in keeping with the law Committee’s proposal was passed. All defendants have a right to receive a fair trial without prejudice. For a jury system to be fair, the decision on the case must be made based only on evidence shown in the court. Referring to outside information is not allowed because such outside information is excluded as evidence purpose in a trial.