Review: Difficult to check whether jurors have committed crimes

When cases and cases are decided in Swedish courts, it is judges and jurors who share the task together. The referees thus have a lot of power, but their training is often very short. This is stated by the National Audit Office, which has looked at how the Swedish Courts Administration and Swedish courts work with jurors.

- Education needs to be developed. Partly so that the members of the committee will get better support in their role, but also to prevent inappropriate behaviour, says Linnea Olander who is the project manager for the review.

She points out that the training is usually three to four hours long.

- But it varies. In some courts it is an hour long, in another eight hours. At some courts, a digital introductory course is offered. One such can be clicked through quite quickly.

According to the National Audit Office, the members of the committee would, among other things, have to discuss what is equal.

- There have not been any examples of jerks during this review, but we know that there have been cases where trials have had to be retrialed because it has been understood in retrospect that jurors were jerks. In those parts, education needs to be developed.

The review also points out that the courts should be given better opportunities to discover if the jurors commit crimes after they have taken office.

- As it stands today, the courts check the jurors' compliance with the law when they begin a new term of office. But the regulations do not provide support for then making further checks against the suspicion or charge register when the judges have taken office, says Linnea Olander.

She says that there are examples of when crime has only been discovered in connection with outsiders having pointed it out.

- That is one of the reasons why we recommend the government to review whether the courts should be given increased opportunities to control the jurors during the term of office.

Linnea Olander also points out that the jury pool does not reflect the population as intended.

- The jurors are usually older on average and there is a lower percentage who were born abroad compared to the population at large. But it is difficult for the Courts Agency to influence this because jurors are appointed by political parties in municipal and regional councils.