Faculty: Dean says it’s ‘harder than ever before’ to secure acquittals for serious crimes

The Dean of the Faculty of Advocates has said it is “harder than ever before” for defence lawyers to secure acquittals for serious crimes.

Gordon Jackson QC told The Sunday Times that he believed modern-day juries are more “sceptical” of defence lawyers and have become “savvy” about forensic evidence by watching popular TV shows like CSI.

Mr Jackson said: “Securing acquittals is much more difficult than it has been. I am not saying this is a bad thing in the public interest, I am simply saying it is undoubtedly more difficult for lawyers like me to get acquittals than it was.”

He said jurors “are becoming much more sophisticated”, adding: “You could say they are harder to persuade — a cynic might say they are just harder to con than they used to be. Maybe they have a more realistic view of lawyers, that they have heard it all before.”

In a controversial interview, he also said it was “possible” that innocent people are now more likely to be wrongly convicted.

Mr Jackson said that police had “got much, much, much better than in the past” in building cases against suspects, and also raised concerns about the impartiality and independence of the Lord Advocate.

He said he believed that “concentrating on victims” had “warped the process”, adding: “It has affected the genuine impartiality and independence of the prosecutor, the balance was wrong before and I don’t think the balance is necessarily right now.”

Official figures show that conviction rates in Scotland have declined slightly over the past ten years.