CCPR/C/58/Add.6 page 50
answer questions at his trial in similar terms to those in which judges might already do so, and that judges should make more frequent and robust use of their existing right to comment. Magistrates should direct themselves as to the significance of the defendant's failure to give evidence. These recommendations are still being considered.
Challenges to jurors
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218. Defendants in criminal trials have the right to seek to remove jurors by challenging them with cause and, until 5 January 1989, they had the right to challenge up to three jurors without cause and have them removed the "peremptory challenge". But it became apparent that, in trials in England and Wales involving more than one defendant, peremptory challenges could be pooled to change the composition of the jury in an attempt to obtain a panel which was thought likely to be prejudiced in favour of the defence. The Government thought, and Parliament agreed, that this ran counter to the fundamental principle that juries should be selected at random. Peremptory challenge was therefore abolished in England and Wales by section 118 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, with effect from 5 January 1989. The right to challenge with cause is not affected.
219. To ensure that the abolition of peremptory challenge does not leave the prosecution with an unfair advantage, the Attorney-General has issued guidelines on the exercise by the Crown of its corresponding right of "stand-by", whereby the prosecution can ask a juror to stand-by rather than join a particular jury. In future, it will be exercised in only two situations: first, to remove a manifestly unsuitable juror, but only if the defence agrees; secondly, in terorist or security cases, where a check carried out under the Attorney-General's authority has revealed that a particular juror might be a security risk.
References of apparently lenient sentences to the Court of Appeal
220. In response to public and political criticism in England and Wales of the sentences imposed in certain cases involving very serious offences, section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 gives power to the Attorney-General in England and Wales to refer as he thinks fit an apparently lenient sentence to the Court of Appeal, which would then have power to increase the sentence imposed. Leave of the Court of Appeal must be obtained. Notice of an application for leave to refer a case must be given within 28 days from the day on which the sentence was passed. One such case has so far been referred, resulting in an increase from three to six years in the prison sentence passed for incest with a 13 year-old girl. The Court of Appeal has also issued new sentencing guidelines for future cases involving offences of incest.
Interpretation of court proceedings
221. Proceedings are ordinarily conducted in English. In Wales and the former county of Monmouthshire, the Welsh Language Act 1967 provides that the Welsh language may be spoken by any party, witness or other person who desires to use it in legal proceedings, subject in the case of proceedings in a court other than a magistrates' court to such prior notice as may be required by rules of courts (section 1 (1)). Where a defendant cannot speak English, the evidence against him must be translated into his own language, although the judge may waive this requirement if the defendant or his counsel wishes to