R v Qaumi & Ors (No 56) [2016] NSWSC 1130

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Qaumi & Ors (No 56) [2016] NSWSC 1130 Hearing dates: 15 August 2016 Date of orders: 16 August 2016 Decision date: 18 August 2016 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Hamill J Decision: (1) The individual juror be discharged; (2) The trial to continue with a reduced number of jurors (13). Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – application to discharge individual juror – misconduct – reasonable apprehension of bias – other reasons affecting juror's ability to perform functions of a juror – relevance of judge's observations of juror's conduct – whether judge's observations "evidence before the court" – "autoptic proference" – repeated smiling and staring at particular accused – where another accused is conducting a defence of duress – where duress involved threats alleged to come from accused subject of the juror's particular attention – risk of substantial miscarriage of justice – where previous application to discharge juror failed – importance of random selection of jury – reluctance of judge to interfere with random selection Legislation Cited: Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW) Jury Act 1977 (NSW) Cases Cited: Bailiff v R [2011] ACTCA 7 Evans v The Queen [2007] HCA 59; 72 ALJR 250 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 36) [2016] NSWSC 718 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 41) [2016] NSWSC 857 R v Qaumi & Ors (No 55) [2016] NSWSC 1068 RP v R [2015] NSWCCA 215 RP v R [2016] HCATrans 162 Sun Zhan Qui v Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs [1997] FCA 1488; 81 FCR 71 Webb and Hay v The Queen [1994] HCA 30; 181 CLR 41 Wu v The Queen [1999] HCA 52; 199 CLR 99 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Regina Farhad Qaumi Mumtaz Qaumi Jamil Qaumi Mohammed Zarshoy Mohammed Kalal Representation: Counsel: K McKay & P Hogan (Crown) J Stratton SC & M Curry (F Qaumi) P Young SC (M Quami) N Carroll(J Quami) R Driels (Zarshoy) G Clarke (Kalal)