Criminal Fraud Trials

Complex Criminal Fraud Trials: Problems and Solutions

This paper will examine the problems of complex criminal trials in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The focus will be on "serious fraud" cases, which usually involve securities laws violations. There will also be some discussion of organized crime cases in the United States, since most of the controversies over complex criminal cases have arisen in the context of these cases. The first part of the paper will discuss these problems in general terms, noting the criticisms of how these trials are conducted and the efforts at reform. The second part of the paper will look at three actual trials, one each in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Critics of the present criminal justice systems point to these three trials in particular as illustrative of the problems posed by complex criminal trials. The third part of the paper will discuss the most controversial aspect of the criminal justice system: the jury. The discussion in this section of the paper will focus upon how the jury system has failed in complex criminal trials. It will also look at the right to a jury trial as it exists in each of the three jurisdictions discussed in this paper and whether it would be possible (and feasible) to eliminate jury trials in complex criminal fraud cases. The fourth part of the paper will briefly examine the issue of judicial competence. This discussion will focus upon whether judges them

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d of the trial, the jurors were given certain instructions by the judge as to how to analyze the relationship between the fraud and conspiracy charges. Yet in their deliberations, the jurors analyzed this relationship in a manner contrary to the judge's instructions. As a result, the defendant was acquitted of the criminal charges. When interviewed after the trial, one juror explained that he could not disregard the statements the judge told him to disregard because he could not remember what he was supposed to disregard. And this was after only eleven weeks of trial.21 In the criminal trial of John De Lorean, the jurors had to deal with a defendant charged with racketeering, fraud, and tax evasion in relation to the automobile operated by him and funded largely by the British government. The prosecution introduced strong evidence, including videotape of the defendant accepting money from undercover law enforcement agents. The jury acquitted the defendant under questionable circumstances. It was discovered after the conclusion of the trial that the jurors believed they had to come to an unanimous verdict and that they did not know that a hung jury would result in a retrial. In addition, the jurors apparently misunderstood

Category: Government - C