More trials with no jury will disadvantage people of colour, charities warn

Matt Foot, the co-director of the charity Appeal, says defendants should be tried by a jury of their peers. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Removing the right to a jury trial for more offences would disadvantage people of colour and other minorities and lead to more miscarriages of justice, reformers have warned.

Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts in England and Wales is expected to be published this week and recommend the creation of intermediate courts, sitting without a jury, to try some offences.