Photographer
Campaigners from Defend Our Juries sit outside the Old Bailey Criminal Court with placards on 25th of September 2023, Central London, United Kingdom. The placards state that jurors can give their verdict according to their conviction. Earlier this year Judy Warner held up a placard stating the same thing outside a crown court where climate activists were on trial and she has been told she will be prosecuted by Michael Tomlinson KC, the Solicitor General with contempt of court.
Activists from left to right:
Dr Alex Penson, scientist, said:
“I'm terrified by the recent threats to the substance of jury trials which put the moral sense of ordinary people at the heart of the criminal justice system. Their right to acquit according to their conscience is centuries old and a crucial safeguard against the abuse of power.”
Dr Susi Arnott said:
“I'm a scientist, not a lawyer, but we learned about jury trials and common law at secondary school in the 1970s. Perhaps we need test cases that re-assert the right of juries to be informed of the facts of a case, and to deliberate in accordance with their conscience. It’s a perversion of justice to see these rights being denied, in court, by judges who seem to see corporate interests as more important.”
Dr Abi Perrin, a scientist, said:
“In 2023 telling the truth is being treated as a criminal act, with people prosecuted for displaying facts in public, and imprisoned for explaining their motivations in their own defence in a court of law. I am deeply afraid of a world where truth, science and morality are not important, or where we are not free to fight for them.”
The campaigners replicated Warner’s action as an act of defiance with the threatened prosecution of Warner and more than 250 activists across the country took part, from Carlisle to Truro and Swansea to London according to the campaigners. The campaigners from Defend Our Juries are worried that the prosecution of Trudy Warner will undermine a jury’s right
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- Kristian Buus
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- Defend our jurors - 25.09.23