Does the placement of the accused at court undermine the presumption of innocence?

Abstract

You may be lucky enough to have a lawyer represent you in court, but in many countries, you may struggle to hear what they say or to communicate with them. Over the last 20 years, docks, where the accused is located during trial, have become more 'secure', with some enclosed in glass or even behind wire mesh or bars. In 2014, Meredith Rossner from the London School of Economics and her research collaborators in Australia staged an experiment using a simulated trial in a real courtroom to test the effect of different docks on the presumption of innocence. Show more