When Emma Ferguson-Coleman received a jury service summons, she wrote to HM Courts and Tribunal Service informing them that as a profoundly deaf person, she needed an interpreter in order to follow both the court proceedings as well as deliberations in the jury room.
Their response was to send her a letter informing her that they were unable to accept her as a member of the jury, primarily because only jurors are allowed to be present in the jury room (an interpreter would constistute a ’13th person’).
The letter also quoted section 9B of the Jury Act 1974, as seen below:
Ferguson-Coleman told me that “I am gutted that I am perceived not to have the capacity to make those types of decisions. It doesn’t help to hear from our American counterparts that they have been successfully selected and have taken part as equal citizens. How did it make me feel? Like a second class citizen.”
In an article for the Guardian online in 2010, journalist Cathy Heffernan argued that “for the UK jury system to work it needs to prioritise inclusivity – and that means allowing deaf people to sit as jurors, too.” Heffernan found that in the Irish justice system she was also deemed ‘incapable’ and barred from being part of a jury.
As the letter Ferguson-Coleman received shows, deaf people are still barred from jury service and it could be argued that the references in section 9B that refer to a “doubt as to his/her capacity to act effectively as a juror” deems deaf people as being of lesser capacity than their hearing counterparts.
Second class citizens? Sounds about right.
By Charlie Swinbourne
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C Smith
June 20, 2012
That’s a patent misunderstanding of the role of interpreters, as well as being supremely unfair to Ferguson-Coleman. Astonishing.
Mark
June 20, 2012
so, does this mean if a Deaf person was in court, s/he couldn’t be judged by his/her peers?
Editor
June 20, 2012
That’s an interesting point. Firstly, it’s unfair that in this country, a deaf person could stand trial but no deaf person could be part of the jury that decided whether they are guilty or not.
Although, presumably if all 12 jurors were deaf and used BSL, they would be able to be sworn in as the jury? I guess the flip-side of that is the question of whether a deaf jury would ever find a deaf person guilty..!
Jeremy Freeman (@bamps)
June 20, 2012
To be quite honest, I’m quite happy to be excused from jury service! I see it as an advantage.
Editor
June 20, 2012
A lot of people have said that, and it’s perfectly understandable. However in this case, Ferguson-Coleman was very keen to perform her public duty.
Emma F-C (@emmafc74)
June 20, 2012
It’s about being ABLE to perform my public duty as an equal citizen (not so much about being keen to take unpaid leave, paying extortionate car parking fees and deciding whether someone should/should not go to prison!)
Tim
June 20, 2012
Very generally speaking, modern Britain is saying to Deaf people – ‘If you apply for jobs you’re unfit, but if you apply for benefits, you are fully fit.’ Rock and a hard place.
Jo
June 20, 2012
I think the editor was ignorance to mention thinking that a BSL jury could not find a deaf person guilty. Are we as individual deaf people not capable of looking at the facts of the crime and make our own decision based on that rather than whats inside the ear? Personally I too was pulled up for Jury twice and rejected both times on the basis of a 13th person. Seriously….in a situaton like that there would be TWO interpreters present and therefore make the number up to 14?!
Editor
June 20, 2012
Ah sorry Jo that was intended to be a joke… Deaf solidarity and all that!
info@deafo.com
June 20, 2012
BBC news link from the McWhinney case in 1999: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/510035.stm
Jim Cromwell
June 20, 2012
This sucks and must be changed.
In related news, if you don’t fancy doing jury service – pretend to be deaf…..
Emma F-C
June 20, 2012
Jim!
Oh Dear
June 20, 2012
Oh dear…..it has happened before and there is no way deaf people can partake as a member of jury.
I, for one, am glad.
Very few deaf people are capable of analysing evidences and deciding who is guilty and non-guilty. You only have to look at the typical nature of deaf rumours, believing in them, followed by ‘whispering’ campaign and back-stabbing nonsense.
After all it will save more innocent people being sent to prison.
Dana Marshall
June 21, 2012
I am very glad to live in the US then, where the Americans With Disabilities Act requires that all courts include me as much as possible and I would not be dismissed as a Juror. I have been a Juror, and while not deaf, I’m in a wheelchair, and was able to participate, except I had to crawl into the Jury box. My choice, because I didn’t want the lawyers to single me out. I told the judge he needed a ramp up for the NEXT time. He promised. 🙂
I’m so sorry you aren’t welcome as a juror, because in the US, you would be. They MUST accomodate you, including an interpreter. Maybe someone could get the ball rolling for a British version of the ADA?
Robin Herdman
June 22, 2012
The court systems never changed. It’s time now we should contact the Deaf organisations to push to change the law, also we need to have BSL Act now!! Teaching British Court/Juries in Deaf Awareness to change their altitudes!!
Liz
June 27, 2012
I have always worried what I would nothear properly due to me being deaf. But if this is the case where I am excluded, I shall not worry myself. I would not want to play a part of deciding whether that person is guily or not.
But although I feel what I have said above, I can understand the upset felt for being excluded too. In America you are included. They have always been far in front with some things to us Brits. And this is one example as another commenter said earlier.
Sam
July 17, 2012
Interesting that the article, despite its merits, doesn’t consider conflict between the Juries Act 1974 and Equality Act 2010, in particular the general equality duty within the latter legislation which potentially challenges the legality of this decision.
alexbradshaw
April 25, 2016
My daughter has recently done jury service and she thinks it would be very difficult for a deaf person to keep up for many reasons. As for myself, having had near normal hearing when a school girl and now suffering from profound deafness in middle age, I think it would be extremely difficult to do jury service as deaf aids, including both hearing aids and cochlear implants do not replace normal hearing which you would need to adequately function in this type of environment.
I do not do sign language although I did try and learn it back in the 1990s when in my 30s and severely deafened. It was extremely difficult to get the hang of and and I struggled with learning it for over four years.
In addition I would have thought it would have thought it difficult for a BSL interpreter to keep up with the constant dialogue between 12 people in the deliberation room where people are talking quickly and often talking over each other.
Deafness is a disability especially when it is of a profound level whether one uses a cochlear implant, a hearing aid or BSL to get round it. I don’t understand why people cannot accept this. Deafness makes ones life much harder and by saying this I am just being realistic.