On 27 March, a group of Sheffield residents sat outside Sheffield Crown Court, holding signs displaying the centuries-old principle of ‘jury equity’, i.e. the right of all jurors in British courtrooms to acquit a defendant according to their conscience and irrespective of the directions of the judge. The Group delivered a letter addressed to the Judges at the court, emphasising the urgent need for British judges to uphold jury equity in their courtrooms.
They will join hundreds of others sitting at more than 20 Crown Courts across England and Wales, as part of the ‘Jury Equity Day’ organised by the Defend Our Juries campaign.
High Court has recently ruled in favour of jury equity principle
This local action marks the two year anniversary of Trudi Warner’s arrest for holding a sign displaying the principle of jury equity outside of a London court [1]. Warner was pursued for contempt of court by the Government’s Attorney General for more than a year until the High Court ruled in April 2024 that she was within her legal rights to have held the signs at the court – calling the Attorney General’s pursuit “fanciful”, and that Warner’s sign “accurately informed potential prospective jurors about one of their legal powers.” [2]
British judges accused of ‘bullying’ juries
In February this year, Retired GP Diana Warner (no relation to Trudi Warner) was found guilty of ‘obstructing the railway’, for briefly stopping a train headed to the world’s largest tree-burning facility, DRAX. The trial was derailed after jurors sought the advice of the judge (Judge Kearl KC), stating that “as a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict”. Judge Kearl replied, “You have all taken an oath or affirmation to try this case on the evidence, not your conscience”, seemingly ignoring last year’s high court ruling and denying jurors their centuries-old right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience. Following Judge Kearl’s intervention, the jury found Diana Warner guilty with a unanimous verdict, with Warner accusing the Judge of “bullying” jurors. [3]
Judge Kearl’s intervention in Diana Warner’s case is merely the latest instance of judicial intimidation of jurors against applying their conscience. In March 2024, for example, Judge Silas Reid threatened a jury with criminal charges to stop them applying their conscience in the Trial of Five Women from Extinction Rebellion. [4]
And as the ‘climate of injustice’ continues, jurors are still not hearing the whole truth
Just last week, 8 Just Stop Oil defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance at Heathrow. During the trial, the judge removed all legal defences from the jury’s consideration and ruled the climate emergency to be ‘irrelevant’. [5]
This latest guilty verdict comes amid a continued legal clampdown on climate and Palestine activists, with 30+ people still locked up in British prisons for taking action against the arms and fossil fuel industries.
Andrew Spencer from Sheffield said;
“Unfortunately, it is now March 2025, and the High Court’s message about the significance of jury equity does not seem to have got through to a number of judges, supposedly the educated elite of our country. It’s 2025, but British judges are still stuck in the 1660s
The right of juries to acquit a defendant according to their conscience has been enshrined in British Law for centuries, and is intended to protect our courts from manipulation by vested interests or biased individuals who are intent on obtaining a conviction.
When Judges mislead jurors and bully them into finding people guilty against their conscience, then our legal system and democracy suffer”
Notes
About Defend Our Juries
Defend our Juries is a campaign with the following aims:
- to bring to public attention the programme to undermine trial by jury in the context of those taking action to expose government dishonesty and corporate greed
- to raise awareness of the vital constitutional safeguard that juries can acquit a defendant as a matter of conscience, irrespective of a judge’s direction that there is no available defence (a principle also known as ‘jury equity’ or ‘jury nullification‘)
- to ensure that all defendants have the opportunity to explain their actions when their liberty is at stake, including by explaining their motivations and beliefs.
See Defend Our Juries website: https://defendourjuries.org/
Government drops appeal over climate activist who held sign outside UK court (The Guardian, Sept 2024)
“Assault on rights of juries’: activist decries Tory challenge to legal defence for protesters” (The Guardian, Feb 2024)
“How UK courts became the new climate protest battleground” (Drilled, January 2024)
“Defying a judge is not always contempt of court” (The Times, behind a paywall)
“Trudi Warner reveals the dark secret of English courts: juries do have the right to follow their consciences” (The Guardian, 27 September 2023)
“A climate of injustice” (the Ecologist)
“Charge us with contempt too, say 40 people, if climate activist prosecuted” (Guardian, 17 August 2023)
See also the short film, “Right to Acquit”
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