Armed robbery trial without jury

During the first trial Twomey suffered a heart attack in Belmarsh prison and was severed from the indictment. His six co-defendants were acquitted. At the second trial the jury was reduced to nine and was unable to reach a decision. At his third trial the judge halted the hearing nearly halfway through after receiving information from the prosecution, which the judge said pointed to a "serious attempt at jury tampering". The prosecution applied afterwards for a trial without a jury.

But in the high court, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith decided a series of jury protection measures could be put in place to run a fourth trial. The court of appeal overruled his decision last year. Lord Judge, the lord chief justice, said in his ruling: "The case concerns very serious criminal activity, including possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, possession of a firearm with intent to commit robbery and conspiracy to rob.

He said during a "carefully planned and professionally executed armed robbery" a firearm was aimed at a supervisor in the warehouse and discharged. They would not, he was assured. Amid the discussion over what could and should happen, barrister Sam Stein QC summed up the apparent confusion surrounding the situation by saying: "We are breaking history.

This is the first time a court has started a juryless trial. As the debate continued in Court 35, so did a small protest outside the building. Inside the court the judge highlighted one of the advantages of the lack of a jury.

He asked members of the press to identify themselves and explained that, should anyone struggle to find a seat, they could sit in the jury box. Finally the defendants were asked to confirm their names.

Usually the clerk would read out all 18 charges on the indictment to the jury. Instead she simply asked Mr Justice Treacy: "Has your lordship seen the indictment? He told the judge that the men in the dock had been involved in a "professionally planned and professionally executed" armed robbery at Menzies World Cargo at Heathrow in February During the raid, Mr Flint said, 16 employees at Menzies were rounded up at gunpoint and tied up.

One man tried to escape and as he ran was shot at, allegedly by Mr Blake, it is alleged. The bullet missed but when Mr Blake caught up with the staff member a scuffle ensued during which several more shots were allegedly fired, although none hit or injured the staff member.

July Abolition of the Court of Star Chamber Mis- used by monarchs against political opponents until the end of the Civil War, this was the last place people were regularly tried for serious criminal offences on indictment in the absence of a jury.

Established in in Northern Ireland to overcome jury intimidation, the Diplock courts tried people a year in the s. The courts were abolished in July December Trial of Abbas Boutrab The first non-republican or loyalist case to appear in a Diplock court. Boutrab was sentenced to six years for downloading information on how to bomb a passenger jet.

TAVARES — A Leesburg man who allegedly threatened to kill a man who was sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, and then came back four hours later and shot him, goes on trial Monday for first-degree premeditated murder and armed burglary.

If convicted of first-degree murder by the member jury that will be picked, starting Monday, Jeremy Harrison will be sentenced to life without parole. Thomas on May 21, , before shooting him in the chest. Four hours earlier, at around a.

The couple, who dated for four years and had two children together, had broken up the month before and he moved out. From Murder trial of Leesburg man postponed. Lake County jury: Thornhill guilty of first-degree murder. Rudolph asked if he was going to shoot her. Smith told Harrison to leave.

A little after 9 a. Rudolph said she jumped out of bed and was trying to pull Harrison off when she heard a single gunshot. He was declared dead by a doctor at UF Health. Rudolph told police that Thomas, 26, was not her boyfriend. The two had recently met at a party in Ocala.

Thomas lived in Marion County. Rudolph was talking on her cell phone to Harrison when police arrived. Harrison turned himself in at the Lake County jail five days after the shooting. He did not make a statement to police.