Justice Philip Bright Mensah has been nominated to the Supreme Court

Supreme Court judge nominee, Justice Philip Bright Mensah, has advocated for reforms in the country's jury system.

Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament during his vetting on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Justice Mensah in his call for reforms stated that the current jury system has become porous and has outlived its usefulness.

According to him, the jury system, which at times determines the fate of criminal offenders through its verdicts, has been turned into a profession.

“Now another area which also needs reforms is our jury system. We inherited this system from our colonial masters, Britain, where they started this. Now our experience in our jurisdiction has shown that, that system has outlived its usefulness,” he said.

However, Justice Mensah is advocating for the country to adopt assessors, whose role would be to provide expert advice to judges on specific aspects of cases under trial.

He explained that this approach would give the judge ultimate responsibility for the verdict, as assessors would only provide opinions based on facts, which would not be binding on the judge.

This he added, contrasts with the jury system, where the jury delivers the verdict even if the judge disagrees.

“So, I would advocate that instead of the jury system, there must be assessors. In this place, we should establish what we call assessors. In assessors, the judges who will try the case will be three, and there will be lawyers who have become judges, and they will sit on the case. We have it on our statute books. When judges try treason and high treason offenses, it's assessors they use. We don't do i,t jury. Our jury system here is porous. Some of them have become professional jurors,” he added.

MAG/VPO

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