Extract from the Brisbane Times:
A woman hoping to be Australia’s first deaf juror has lost a legal bid in Queensland’s highest court.
Gaye Prudence Lyons, who can lip read but requires an Auslan interpreter to communicate, claimed she was discriminated against after being excluded from an Ipswich District Court jury in 2012.
It sparked a three-year legal battle that has been through numerous Queensland courts and tribunals, with Ms Lyons suing the state government in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
However in a verdict handed down on Friday, three appeal judges found that it was within the law for Ms Lyons to be left off the jury by a court registrar.
It comes after a similar case in Victoria, where a 34-year-old man was excluded from jury duty.
Earlier this year, Ms Lyons said her campaign to serve on the jury was “to break down barriers and have equal opportunities for the deaf community”.
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Tim
September 1, 2015
Then Australia has no moral right to prosecute Deaf people, if Deaf people do not qualify as jury peers.
vanizorc
September 1, 2015
More details are needed in this article — by what specific argument did the courts proffer to “justify” this woman’s exclusion? As I’m aware, the ability to hear would not be a “bonafide occupational requirement” for jury duty. However, the accessibility technology that the woman may need *might* compromise confidential of some sort — I don’t know how this can be, so I’ll be searching for more details on this case. If there is no such loss of “safety/confidentiality” from including a deaf person on the jury, then she was most definitely discriminated against and should appeal again.
Cathy
September 1, 2015
It is a shame there are not more details on this case; from which one can determine what has really happened and why this woman was left off the jury?
Personally, I do not agree with deaf people serving on juries. Some cases are so complex even an interpreter may not be fully understood. If a deaf person is not fully understanding proceedings then they can hardly partake of a jury, can they? That would jeopardise a trial and constitute a miscarriage of justice.
Whose to bet that this is what the judges were worried about?!