국민참여재판 하에서 경찰 역할의 변화

Changes in the Role of Police under the New Criminal Jury System

&nbsp;&nbsp;Korea has maintained the professional-career judge system without any kind of lay participation in the trial. Since 2004, the Special Committee on the Judicial Reform discussed the introduction of a jury system-albeit as a form of weak participation. Now, the draft on the criminal jury system is awaiting a legislative review at the National Assembly. My question here is what kind of changes will be enforced if Korea introduce the criminal jury system.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Police witness will often appear to the criminal trial. Police will stand in front of jury panel, and witness what he has experienced. Police is concerned with how to secure the reliability of his witness. His attitude or even his fashion would work as an influencing factor on the reliability. More important factor would be whether a witnessing police should maintain a distance from the prosecutor If a jury consider that a police witness was instructed/controlled by his supervising prosecutor, his testimony would be far from convincing.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Such a new situation will require the new structure of police which will be more responsible for their investigation, and more independent from the prosecutor. Public prosecutor will much more concentrate on the trial than deeply involve in a direct investigation. Public prosecutor will focus their authority on the supervision of due process, and rather than the direct investigation. Police will gain the authority to commit an primary investigation under his own responsibility, and will be put under stronger pressure to the due process of law. The possible changes in the police work and criminal justice system in general would be more desirable because they will seek more justice and more human rights.