26 Nov 2009
BUDDLE V R SC 43/2009
- Citation
- SC 43/2009
- Court
- Supreme Court
A judge may not discharge a jury under the statutory casualty/emergency power in respect of counts on which the jury has indicated unanimous agreement; the trial judge lacked power to withdraw counts from the jury without taking verdicts where jurors indicated unanimous not guilty on specific counts, and failure to take those verdicts was a fundamental deficiency and an abuse of process that caused a miscarriage of justice; therefore the convictions on those counts must be set aside and retrial limited as ordered.