“PLEASE PROSECUTE ME” SAY JURY DEFENDERS

It’s not often you hear people asking to be prosecuted. Today is an unusual day. In an act of solidarity, residents from Sheffield sent a copy of a 300-signature letter to the Solicitor General. In the letter the signatories, including residents from Sheffield, challenged the solicitor general to prosecute them. 

The spokesperson for the Group Steph Howlett said “We have just posted a letter to Robert Courts, the Solicitor General. Robert seems to think that it is ok to prosecute a pensioner, Trudi Warner, for holding a sign telling people about the established right of jurors to convict according to their conscience. Something that is engraved on the wall of the Old Bailey. We’ve all stood outside courts of Law or posted on social media, the same sign. Some of us are pensioners too. If you are going to prosecute Trudi, prosecute us too. Or are you only looking to target a lone pensioner?”

The letter is the latest step in a growing campaign to allow ordinary people to know the rights of the jury. Following a legally famous case in 1670 it is established in English and Welsh law that whatever verdict the jury decides the court has to accept. Whilst this is the law by convention neither the judge nor any barrister in the court will tell the jury this. This leaves the jury with the impression that they have to do what the judge tells them to, they do not!

In March 2023 Trudi Warner, a 68-year-old retired social worker, held up a sign outside Inner London Crown Court describing the rights of the jury. Trudi was arrested and on the final working day before Christmas last year, when the nation was all distracted by mince pies, the Solicitor General served prosecution papers on Trudi. 

In early December 500 people across England and Wales reproduced Trudi’s actions. People stood outside Crown Courts from Bolton to Truro with identical signs. In Sheffield, there was a silent protest outside Sheffield Crown Court.  You can watch Geraldine Roberts speak about this on YouTube.  

The police appeared to accept this peaceful event/show of solidarity and no arrests were made. Now 300 people are pushing the Solicitor General further. If what Trudi Warner did is a crime don’t pick on a single pensioner, prosecute us! 

The backdrop to this action is the increasingly repressive legal environment. In 2021and 2023 the government imposed much tighter restrictions on civil liberties, prompting complaints from as far afield as the UN special rapporteur for human rights. Restrictions have also been imposed on citizenship, strikes and suspected migrants.

After a series of acquittals, the government began a campaign restricting the defences available to defendants and limiting the evidence that could be presented in court.

Defend our Juries began as a response to this judicial repression of human rights and campaigns to promote jury rights and open and fair trials.