While some consider it unseemly for judges to overrule a jury, others would like to entrust them with more authority
that in 2018 found George Pell guilty of sexually assaulting two choirboys deliberated about its verdict for five days. But it did not think about the evidence carefully enough, Australia’s High Court ruled on April 7th. It overturned the conviction and ordered Mr Pell, a cardinal who used to be the Vatican’s top financial manager, released.
The High Court was troubled, however, by the other courts’ reliance on the testimony of a single witness. One of the two choristers died in 2014, so the conviction was “wholly dependent upon the acceptance of truthfulness and reliability” of the surviving one, the High Court’s judges observed. Even though the witness was “credible and reliable”, they said, the jury should have had its doubts.
Australian judges do not like to overturn their juries’ decisions, for fear of denting faith in criminal justice, says Rick Sarre of the University of South Australia. Rulings like this are fairly uncommon. To some, the acquittal is a sign of a system working. But it has rattled many Australians. As the cardinal walked free, vandals emblazoned the words “no justice” over the cathedral in Melbourne.
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