A Survey of Jury Verdicts in the Northwest Territories

Sixty-eight criminal charges in all have been tried before jury during the fourteen years the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories has operated. The writer has presided as judge on twenty-five of these and before that appeared as defence counsel on six. With a personal knowledge of almost one-half the total tried and with ready access to information relating to the others, this short survey or analysis has been attempted to see if any pattern of behaviour in juries can be readily ascertainable. Notes made at the trial, the actual court register and court files have all been examined. The writer has also called upon the phenomenal memory of Everett Tingley who served as court reporter for thirteen of the fourteen years. Alexander Stewart, the present Clerk of the Court and for many years before that a member of the R.C.M.P. serving in some of the Arctic communities involved, was also questioned on some of the cases.