CJ Torkornoo Makes Sweeping Reforms in Ghana’s Jury System

Ghana’s Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Gertrude Torkornoo, has announced sweeping reforms to the country’s jury system at the opening of the 2025 criminal assizes, with bold measures aimed at widening representation, curbing inefficiencies, and restoring the integrity of the jury process across all regions.

Speaking at the ceremony to launch this year’s criminal sessions, the Chief Justice acknowledged the longstanding structural issues that have plagued the jury system and revealed that comprehensive steps had now been taken to address them.

“Over the years and strangely, the justice sector seems to have become constrained only to a small pool from which jurors were chosen.”

According to the CJ, the system had become constrained to a narrow selection of individuals over the years, leading to widespread inefficiencies and the emergence of so-called “professional jurors.”

The Chief Justice cited Section 208 of Act 30, which disqualifies individuals convicted of treason, felony, or dishonesty from serving as jurors unless pardoned.

Despite this provision, the reality has been that jury selection remained overly dependent on a limited group – primarily “clerical staff in public institutions, and occasionally personnel from the education sector.”

“The yearly revision of lists required under Section 213 of Act 30 has seemed not to be thorough. This has caused the untenable problem of a particular juror being involved in several cases in different courts at the same time.

She expressed concern that this troubling pattern where the same individuals served on multiple juries across different courts simultaneously, with some remaining in jury roles for over ten years, could no longer be allowed to thrive.

Her Ladyship described this trend as counterproductive, noting that jurors are intended to bring a lay perspective and fresh insights to proceedings. Instead, the country had witnessed the evolution of an insular system that repeated the same faces and created an echo chamber of judgment.

Expanding the Jury Pool

After extensive internal deliberations and external consultations, the judiciary initiated a broad-based reform strategy. A team of advisors worked with the Chief Justice to develop reforms aimed at making the jury process more efficient, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of modern justice delivery.

“A team assisted me,” she revealed before proceeding to lay down the reforms recommendations from their collective work.

As part of efforts to ensure widespread acceptance of the changes, the team embarked on both national and regional stakeholder engagements. The reforms were shared with the public and interest groups through media outreach in a bid to gain consensus and build momentum.

“Jury lists have been expanded to include all citizens qualified by law, including many individuals in the private sector.”

This most immediate outcome to expand the jury list to include individuals from all legally qualified walks of life, especially from the private sector marks a decisive shift from the earlier pattern of near-exclusive reliance on civil servants.

Her Ladyship emphasized that this change was not a one-off occurrence. Rather, it marked the beginning of a continuous process that would gradually open up the system and remove the long-standing bottlenecks to jury diversity.

She stressed the importance of broadening perspectives in courtrooms to align with Ghana’s democratic ideals and ensure fairer outcomes in criminal trials. “Over time, steps will be taken to further expand the pool from which jurors will be selected.”

Guaranteeing Efficiency:

A major goal of the reforms is to address delays in criminal proceedings caused by poor jury availability and scheduling conflicts.

“By these reforms, it is our expectation in the judiciary that the time of citizens engaged in jury duty not being used efficiently will change,” she expressed, highlighting the Judiciary’s hope to reduce the burden placed on a small number of jurors and facilitate quicker trial processes.

“The time for change has gladly come, beginning from today’s opening of the criminal session, which will be occurring in all the regions of Ghana, where trials on indictment will be conducted,”she remarked.

The CJ assured stakeholders that the judiciary was committed to the expeditious disposal of cases under the new system, and these changes which are to take effect immediately, are the drivers of the new vision for a better and improved judicial service delivery system.

To support the implementation of these reforms, new administrative directions have already been issued to presiding judges and court registrars. These directions are expected to standardize procedures and reinforce the goals of the revamped jury selection framework.

The announcement of these reforms at the 2025 criminal assizes signals a new era in Ghana’s justice system, with Chief Justice Torkornoo leading the charge to build a fairer, more efficient, and citizen-inclusive process.

The initiative also aligns with President John Dramani Mahama’s broader vision to restore credibility to key national institutions during his current administration.