New South Wales Consolidated Acts

JURY ACT 1977 - SECT 55G

55G Ballot where additional jurors on jury in criminal proceedings

(1) If the jury in criminal proceedings consists of more than 12 persons (the
"expanded jury" ) immediately before the jury is required to retire to consider its verdict, the jury for the purposes of considering and returning the verdict (a
"verdict jury" ) is to be constituted by only 12 members of the expanded jury.

(2) A verdict jury is to be constituted by--

(a) if the expanded jury has chosen one of its members to speak on behalf of the jury as a whole (a
"foreperson" )--the foreperson and 11 other members of the expanded jury selected by ballot, or

(b) if there is no foreperson--12 members of the expanded jury selected by ballot.

(3) The ballot for a verdict jury must be conducted by the presiding judge or an officer of the court by--

(a) placing in a box provided for that purpose the cards provided under section 28 (3) for all of the members of the expanded jury (other than the foreperson, if any), and

(b) drawing out of that box those cards, one after another, and calling out the identification numbers on those cards, until 11 or 12 persons (as the case requires) are selected.

(4) A verdict jury continues to constitute the jury for the trial until the trial concludes unless the court has given a direction under subsection (5).

Note : Under this section, the same verdict jury will remain in place in trials where a verdict jury is required to consider some counts in an indictment first and then the other counts at a later stage in the trial (unless subsection (5) applies). As a result, the court will be able to reconvene for any further summoning up or directions in relation to counts that remain to be determined without the need for a new verdict jury to be constituted.

(5) If one or more jurors on the expanded jury are excluded from a verdict jury by a ballot, the court must--

(a) if the verdict of the verdict jury is a directed verdict in respect of some (but not all) of the accused persons or some (but not all) of the counts in the indictment--direct that the excluded jurors rejoin the jury for the continuation of the trial in respect of the accused persons or counts (as the case may be) that have not yet been the subject of a verdict in the trial, or

(b) if the verdict jury retires to consider whether or not to return a verdict without hearing further evidence--direct that the excluded jurors rejoin the jury for the continuation of the trial in the event that the verdict jury decides that it wishes to hear further evidence before returning a verdict.

(6) The court may not give a direction under subsection (5) if a verdict jury has previously returned a verdict (other than a directed verdict) in the trial.

(7) If the court gives a direction under subsection (5), a fresh ballot for a verdict jury must be conducted if there is still an expanded jury when the jury is next required to retire to consider its verdict.

(8) The court must discharge any jurors on the expanded jury who are excluded from a verdict jury by ballot if the jurors will not be required to rejoin the jury because of a direction under subsection (5).

(9) Nothing in this section affects the operation of section 22.