C4 hybrid-doc to explore UK jury system
February 20, 2024
Factual specialist indie ScreenDog has announced that its upcoming documentary, The Jury: Murder Trial will air on Channel 4 on February 26th.
The documentary will take audiences behind the scenes, with real jurors deciding on a real UK murder case. The four part hybrid series recreates an entire murder trial, word for word from original transcripts. A oanel of 24 individuals randomly split into two juries hear the trial at the same time. The two juries are completely unaware of each other and viewers will find out if their verdicts agree.
The Jury: Murder Trial restages the trial of a man who admits killing his wife but denies murder and this is the fact that the juries must decide. Studies have shown that juries give questionable verdicts up to a quarter of the time and 70 per cent of jurors don’t understand the key points of law in their case. With the secrecy that surrounds the jury process and the fact that it is illegal for jurors to speak about their verdicts, ScreenDog suggests that it is only through experiments like this that we can ever know juries really function and how fair they really are.
Featuring commentary from OBE and former crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal, the series will air across four nights on Channel 4.
Ed Kellie, Creative Director at ScreenDog, commented: “We came up with this idea thinking about where our personal biases have the most impact on the people around us. Jurors are asked to draw on their life experience, but to leave their bias behind – is that possible? Do 12 people neutralise each other fairly, or do dominant individuals and cliques form? We wanted a glimpse of how these monumental, life changing decisions play out in jury rooms everyday up and down the country.”
Alf Lawrie, Head of Factual Entertainment, for Channel 4, added: “This fascinating and ground-breaking programme asks profound questions about the justice system. Lifting the lid on what most people know little about, this revealing show could be described as putting the jury system itself on trial.”