Letter from Bermuda: And Justice for Some!

Bermuda abolished special juries late in 2004. On the face of it, that sounds reasonable enough, but in Bermuda, hardly anything is ever what it seems, especially when it seems reasonable.
Special juries were composed of ordinary jurors, who had been pre-chosen for having attained a certain level of education. The notion behind the special jury was a more intelligent understanding of the term “jury of one’s peers”. The system was introduced in Bermuda in 1907 to allow those qualified “by reason of education, qualifications, occupation or experience” to act as specially empanelled juries for complex cases such as those involving technical knowledge or the examination of books, accounts or documents.