Juries, grand, abolition (1855) (WA)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

ANNO OCTODECIMO

VICTORIA] REGINA:.

No. V.

Au Ordinance to abolish Grand Juries, and. to substitute other provisions in lieu thereof.

iA7-1EREAS a general opinion prevails that the maintenance of preamble, the Institution of Grand Juries in this colony is not necessary to the due administration of Justice ;—Be it therefore enacted, by the Governor of Western Australia and its Dependencies, by -and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof :—

I. THAT a Grand Jury shall not henceforth be summoned for

any General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the said colony, or for

any

18th Viet. No. 5, 1855.

any district thereof, excepting only in such cases as the Governor for

the time being shall by proclamation direct.

THAT whenever a magistrate shall commit to custody or hold to bail any person for trial at any General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, an information shall be filed in lieu of a Bill of Indict- ment presented to the Grand Jury.

II.

Information.

Same as Indictment. III.

THAT such information, when filed with the Clerk of the Peace or other proper officer for the time being, shall have the like effect, in all respects as an indictment as to trial or otherwise.

IV.     THAT no such information shall be quashed, nor an acquittal

Legal definition given by taken, by reason that the offence charged therein differs in its legal

magistrate may be

tared. definition from the offence specified in the commitment or detainer, or for which the prisoner was held to bail; provided such information shall apply to some act or offence disclosed or to be inferred from the depositions, or from the commitment or recognizance.

THAT no objection shall be allowed to any information, except such as may be made to indictment; and it shall not be necessary in the information, or in making up the record, to set forth any proceedings before the committing or bailing Magistrates.

V.

Grand Jury. the Crown, acting for the time being as Public Prosecutor, as herein- Law Officers to be the VI. THAT the Law Officers of the Crown, or Law Officer of

after provided, may exercise every function in regard to criminal trials and proceedings hereinbefore exercised by Grand Juries : and that in the district of Albany, or such other district as the Governor may by proclamation appoint, such functions may be exercised by the Chairman of Quarter Sessions.

VII. THAT the Advocate-General and Crown Solicitor for the time being respectively, or either of them, shall act as public prosecutor on criminal trials held at Perth ; and no such information shall be filed by the Clerk of the Peace, unless such information shall have been approved in writing, endorsed thereon by the Public Prosecutor.

1855.              18th Viet. No, 5.

VIII.      THAT the word " magistrate' s" used in this Ordinance shall

be construed to include every judge, person or court having power

to commit or hold to bail for trial for any criminal offence.

IX.     THAT this Ordinance shall commence and take effect from

and after the first day of June next.

CHARLES FITZGERALD,

GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

Passed the Legislative Council

this 13th day rfApril, 1855.

A. O'GRADY LEFROY,

Clerk of the Council.

Printed by authority of the Government, by E. Stirling, Perth.