Interactive website lets public play judge in real criminal cases

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By Rhys Duncan on

5

New initiative launched by Sentencing Council

A new interactive website has been launched that allows member of the public to hand down their own sentences in real criminal cases.

You be the Judge‘, created by the Sentencing Council, lets users take on the position of a judge or magistrate to sentence defendants based upon the facts of real cases.

The platform features a range of offences, and offers budding benchers an insight into the facts, aggravation, and mitigation of each one, before allowing viewers to select their own sentence.

Each case is based upon a real set of facts, with offences such as fraud, possession with intent to supply a class A drug, possession of a bladed article, robbery, assault on an emergency worker, and possession of a firearm all on the roster.

The scenarios also inform users of the actual sentence in the case, with the aim of the scheme being to help improve public understanding of the sentencing process.

Lord Justice William Davis, chair of the Sentencing Council, commented: “You be the Judge gives the public a unique opportunity to see for themselves how complex the sentencing process is and how sentencing guidelines help judges and magistrates take a consistent approach.”

Lady Chief Justice, Lady Carr, added:

“The Judiciary of England and Wales supports the Sentencing Council’s new initiative to increase the public’s understanding of how sentencing works. Judges and magistrates make decisions based on the individual circumstances of the cases before them, and You be the Judge is a great way to encourage greater understanding of these decisions.”

5 Comments

Alan

How long till the wokeists in power do this for real?

Common Sense

I’d work on the assumption that if someone ends up in front of a jury trial they are almost certainly guilty. Usually at sentencing the list of priors is so long that it’s a disgrace juries don’t know about all the details in advance every time. A good touchstone of any criminal justice reform is if the defence lawyers really moan about it. Criminal justice seems all about making it difficult and expensive to convict the guilty rather than properly taking into account the needs of the ordinary hard working taxpayer. It will be concerning if the new Government listens too much too the do-gooders and wokeists rather than ordinary folks.

Stal 1

Cool story, Bruh.

The Queen of Hearts

Sentence first!

Then, the verdict!

Bob

You put way too much faith in the police and the prosecution.

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