July 9, 2010 11:00am by David Farrar

Criminals as jurors

A Christchurch student serving on the David Bain retrial jury despite a serious dishonesty conviction has highlighted a loophole that criminals can exploit to become jurors.

The female juror, who served on the jury in the three-month Bain retrial last year, was convicted in March 2007 of stealing about $6000 from her Christchurch employer, a retailer.

She was convicted under her maiden name, and then changed her name by deed poll twice.

The jury pool for the Bain trial was vetted by the police, but the woman’s conviction was not discovered and she was under no obligation to declare it.

Anyone sentenced to a prison term of more than three years, or to more than three months in the past five years, is prohibited from sitting on a jury.

The juror was sentenced to community service so was eligible for jury service, but might have been excluded if the Crown or defence had known of the conviction.

So she was eligible to serve, but it is likely the Crown would have objected if they had known. Why didn’t they?

People selected for jury lists are usually vetted by the police by running the names – as they appear on the electoral roll – through the police national intelligence computer. It records all criminal and traffic convictions.

Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said yesterday the police did not automatically record name changes on their system.

“Deed-poll name changes are registered by the Department of Internal Affairs and a change of name does not automatically show up on our application unless the individual comes to our attention in other ways,” she said.

A department spokesman said it did not have an information-sharing agreement with the police because the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Act did not allow it.

Time to amend the Act then. The Police should automatically be notified of name changes, so they can keep their criminal database accurate.