TOKYO (majirox news) — A landmark decision on the validity of verdicts by a citizen jury will have a far reaching impact on the Japanese criminal justice system. A unanimous decision on Feb. 13 by all five justices of the Japanese Supreme Court upholding the validity of verdicts reached by citizen juries has greatly strengthened their standing, particularly against appeal to non-jury trials, whose power it now strictly limits.

The Supreme Court ruled for the first time that barring an obvious misapplication of the law, the verdict of citizens’ juries must be respected. This places strong limitations on the increasingly common practice of government prosecutors appealing cases to non-jury courts when they are dissatisfied with a verdict.

On Feb. 13, the Supreme Court refused to recognize the verdict of a non-jury court to which the verdict of a citizen’s jury had been appealed. It particularly noted, “Experienced prosecutors have the necessity (when appealing) to bring out specific, concrete points where there has been a misapplication of the law. It could find none in this case.”

The Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the secondary, non-jury court and declared the plaintiff innocent in accordance with the initial verdict of the citizen’s jury.

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