A GROUP of Somerset and Wiltshire residents, including some from Frome, held signs outside Salisbury Law Courts on Monday last week, as part of the growing public campaign, Defend Our Juries.
The campaigners joined hundreds of others around the UK who were displaying signs at 50 crown courts across the country to uphold the centuries-old principle of jury equity, ie the right of all jurors in British courtrooms to acquit a defendant according to their conscience and irrespective of the directions of the judge.
A spokesperson for the campaign said, “By displaying these signs, the group runs the risk of arrest. In September, the solicitor general announced he would prosecute the 68-year retired social worker, Trudi Warner, for contempt of court, for holding a similar sign outside Inner London Crown Court in March. Then in October, two young women were arrested by the Metropolitan Police for doing the same thing. Collective action works.
“There are strong indications that united, collective action to defend the principle of jury equity is proving effective. Just days after the solicitor general’s announcement to prosecute Warner, 252 people gathered outside 25 crown courts across England and Wales, holding similar signs in solidarity with Trudi Warner. None were arrested and there has been no indication of a police investigation since then. An investigation into people previously arrested for displaying posters with the same message has now been discontinued.
Public concern
“The demonstrations come amid mounting public concern that political trials, such as the trial over the toppling of the statue of the slave-trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour, are being turned into show trials, after a succession of jury acquittals, including the acquittal of the Colston four in January 2022, have embarrassed the Government and certain corporate interests. In the Colston case, Suella Braverman, who was Attorney General at the time, decided that the jury of Bristol people had got it wrong, and brought a successful appeal to the court of appeal, changing the law.
Prison
“Measures being taken by courts in response include defendants being banned from explaining to the jury why they did what they did, even people who have taken peaceful direct action are now being sent to prison for up to three years. In some cases, people have been sent to prison just for trying to explain their actions to the jury for saying the words ‘climate change’ and ‘fuel poverty’ in court. Defendants are banned from explaining the principle of jury equity to the jury, even though it is a well-established principle of law, which is set in marble at the original entrance to the Old Bailey.
“Famously, in 1984, in one case, a jury acquitted the civil servant, Clive Ponting, on this principle after he exposed government misinformation to the public and Parliament concerning the ‘Falklands War’.”
Local residents
Explaining why they are prepared to risk arrest for this legal principle, Frome resident Lyn Sands, mother and grandmother said, “Juries are democracy in action, every day providing a level of protection against potential abuse of power by the state. Juries make sure laws are applied in a way that society agrees with and have absolute power to make the final decision as judges and lawyers are not representatives of the people.”
Ruth Cook, from Rode, a former probation officer said, “I was a defendant in a crown court trial where the judge Reid ruled that although we took action to bring attention to the climate emergency, we were not allowed to talk about our motivation to the jury.
“We couldn’t say the words climate emergency, fuel poverty, creating skilled jobs or mention excess deaths from cold. So the trial was heavy on statistics of traffic data – the extent to which we had caused a public nuisance as measured by traffic flows rather than the jury understanding why we took the drastic action that we did – blocking a motorway junction. The jury found us guilty and I now have completed 100 hours of community service, I am still on probation and I have a suspended prison sentence hanging over me.”
Support
The spokesperson for the campaigners added, “The Defend our Juries campaign has gathered powerful support from eminent professors of law, such as Professor Richard Vogler and Professor John Spencer. In the words of Professor Vogler:
“George Orwell noticed the tendency of repressive law to degenerate into farce, when truth becomes a lie and common sense is heresy. This is worth remembering now that the solicitor general, Michael Tomlinson KC, has concluded that it is right to take action against a climate campaigner, Trudi Warner, for holding up a sign outside a criminal court, simply proclaiming one of the fundamental principles of the common law: the right of a jury to decide a case according to its conscience.” ”
