Under the British and Australian laws a jury in a criminal case has no access to information about the defendant’s past criminal record. This protects the person who is being accused of the crime. Some lawyers have suggested that this practice should be changed and that a jury should be given all the past facts before they reach their decision about the case. Discuss both these points of views and give your own opinion.

There is a discussion about a change in the law. Some people consider that there would be useful to know about the past committed crimes of an offender, on the other hand, the law is based on hiding the previous offends of the criminal. In my point of view, although it would be more facilitate to judge by having further information about the person, the court should judge based on the recent crime and should not be influenced by the past information intangibly. In one hand, if the jury has any kind of document about the past it would be somehow useful for the judge. Actually, some lawyers try to reduce the level of the crime by talking about the accused personality and his/her past which indicate he/she obey the law. Therefore know the other crimes of the specific criminal would help to more accurate judge and prevent the misunderstandings. For Example in the year 1993, a court did not punish a woman who killed her husband accurately, because based on her lawyer's presentation she could not be a murder based on her personality and kindness which the neighbours and witnesses confess, thus she was. On the other hand, know about the past might affect the judges view unconsciously. If the guilty person really does not commit the crime the negative influence of his/her past might define him/her as a criminal. Sometimes after a punishment a rehabilitate occurs and criminals absolutely obey the law after all, but accidentally they engaged a crime by mistake and actually they are innocent, in that case, the information about their past might cause the jury make an inaccurate decision and punish them. Moreover, the court is for a recent crime not for the crimes is committed in the past and the person has been punished before. In conclusion, there are different ideas about jury should know the offended records or not and in my view, it depends on the situation, however sometimes it would assist the court for a better judge, in some cases in would have harmful effects on jury's view.