This morning, 16.04.2024 at 8:45am a group of Sheffield residents sat outside Sheffield Crown Court holding signs with the words “The right of juries to give their verdict according to their convictions”
Joining hundreds of others around England and Wales as part of the Defend Our Juries National Week of Action, April 13th – 21st, where every crown court in England & Wales will be visited by people to remind jurors that they have the right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience, irrespective of the directions of the judge.
Their signs display 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. Famously, in 1984, 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’
Tell the Truth Sheffield 