Munster juries tend to give defendants the benefit of the doubt, with clear patterns of acquitting the accused in Circuit Criminal Court trials over a four- year period in many Munster counties.
A different pattern emerges in Dublin, where in most years convictions vastly outnumber acquittals. The same tendency to convict, or for a more mixed pattern, is true of other counties close to Dublin and in the north-west.
Statistics released on request from the Courts Service for a four year period support what has long been held as a legal myth in Kerry - that juries for those pleading not guilty in the Circuit Criminal Court in the county tend to acquit.
Of jury trials dealt with by the Circuit Court Office in Tralee over a four-year period there were just four convictions. In 2000 there were four acquittals and one conviction; in 2001 there were seven acquittals and one conviction; and in 2003, the last year for which there are figures, there were six acquittals and two convictions. Overall there were 18 acquittals in the period.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that trend has continued, and indeed accelerated in 2004 and in 2005, where legal sources in Kerry say no convictions have yet been brought in by juries in trials.
Many of the trials lasted several days. In some cases, juries in Kerry have also failed to reach agreement, it is understood.
A similar stark pattern of acquittal by juries emerges for Co Clare, with more acquittal verdicts by juries than convictions for the accused in all years. Clare juries have a four to one ratio of acquittals to convictions over three of the four years of the period from 2000, (in all years there was one conviction as against four acquittals) and in 2003, of seven jury trials in the Circuit Court not a single conviction was brought back by the Clare juries, in cases dealt with by the Circuit Court Office in Ennis.
In most years, in fact, the majority of juries called for service in Munster counties acquit. In Cork in 2003 there were 26 convictions, and 34 acquittals; in 2002 there were 15 convictions and 14 acquittals, and in 2001 there were 13 convictions by juries as against 24 acquittals.
In Tipperary in 2000 no accused was convicted in a Circuit Court trial and there were eight acquittals. Again in 2001 there were five acquittals as against one conviction according to the cases dealt with by the Circuit Court in Clonmel.
Limerick juries, too, tend towards acquittal, most years. In 2001 there were three convictions as against 10 acquittals, in 2000 there were two convictions and seven acquittals and in 2002 the accused was convicted on eight occasions, as against six times being acquitted. That was reversed in 2003, with eight acquittals as against six convictions.
These Munster counties contrast sharply with a number of other counties - Dublin for instance, where there is a clear tendency to bring in convictions.
In 2003 in Dublin there were 93 convictions and 27 acquittals. In 2002 there were 86 convictions as against 40 acquittals. In 2001 there were 336 convictions as against 53 acquittals by Dublin juries. Only 2000 bucked the trend in Dublin when there were 117 convictions as against 124 acquittals.
In the west, the majority of Galway juries also convict. In 2000 there were 19 convictions and four acquittals in Co Galway, in 2001 there was an even number of convictions and acquittals. In 2002 there were 25 convictions as against three acquittals while in 2003 there were three convictions and four acquittals.
Other counties such as Cavan show a tendency towards convicting the accused with counties such as Kildare and Wicklow and some Midlands counties also showing more mixed patterns.
In Sligo there was no conviction and two acquittals in 2003, but in 2002 there were five convictions and one acquittal.