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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
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And I'm Robert Siegel.
In England, for the first time since the 1600s, a major criminal trial is under way without a jury.
Reporter Vicki Barker explains why it's happening and the legal debate that it's caused.
VICKI BARKER: In courtroom 35 at London's Old Bailey today, the judge, the lawyers and the four defendants were all in their appointed places. But the wooden benches where the jurors normally sit were empty. There have been non-jury trials in Britain before, in the controversial security courts in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. But this was the first time since 1641 that an English judge was hearing a serious criminal case without an English jury. A number of civil rights advocates call that a threat to legal freedoms enshrined in the Magna Carta, the 13th century foundation stone of British democracy. Michael Mansfield is a prominent human rights lawyer.
Mr. MICHAEL MANSFIELD (Lawyer): I think it's really part of a long-going and historic attack on the jury system by different governments who do not like juries. They may say otherwise in public, but actually they don't like the verdicts.
BARKER: But supporters say the move was the best, indeed the only way to ensure justice is done. Here's the background to this case. In February 2004, masked gunmen broke into a busy cargo warehouse at London's Heathrow Airport. They tied up 16 employees and fired at a supervisor when he tried to escape. The gang got away with more than $3 million. Since then, more than $30 million has been spent on three successive trials. The third collapsed after what that judge called a serious attempt at jury tampering. So, Britain's highest judge invoked, for the first time, a recent law allowing trial without a jury. The law can only be applied in very specific circumstances, including where there is a real and present danger that jurors face bribery or intimidation.
The journalist and author Simon Jenkins is a self-described screaming liberal on crime and punishment. But he argues that those most inclined to defend jury trials in criminal cases are those least likely to be the victims of crime.
Mr. SIMON JENKINS (Journalist; Author): Middle-class people love going out to dinner parties and telling jury stories. This is not about civics. This is about, frankly, justice. This assumption that the jury system is like the queen mother and is beyond questioning is just absurd.
BARKER: But the juryless trial does pose some challenges. For instance, if the judge rules some evidence inadmissible, he theoretically has to forget that he ever saw it when he begins to consider his verdict. Even though English law is based on precedent, legal experts say they don't expect this case to open any floodgates. But even supporters of the non-jury trial worry that this takes the justice system of England and Wales into uncharted territory.
For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.