IN a fight for the freedoms of jurors when convicting or acquitting defendants in court, a Malvern Buddhist will join hundreds of others in a silent and peaceful protest outside Worcester Crown Court.
Satya Robyn, Buddhist minister at Bright Earth temple, Malvern will be one of many staging a protest outside the courthouse in support of maintaining a principal of law known as ‘jury equity’ – the right of all jurors in British courtrooms to acquit a defendant according to their conscience, irrespective of the directions of the judge.
During the protest – on Monday, December 4 from 9 am to 10am – hundreds will display signs outlining the principles of jury equity, which the campaigners of Defend Our Juries believe is under threat.
The campaign came about following cases in courts of law in the UK where people have been prosecuted for holding up similar signs near courthouses.
In one recent case, 68-year-old retired social worker, Trudi Warner had held a sign up near a London courtroom which referred to jury equity. She was prosecuted for contempt of court after protesting because a judge had banned defendants from mentioning the climate crisis or fuel poverty in their defence.
Satya Robyn, Buddhist minister at Bright Earth Buddhist temple, Malvern, said: “Ordinary people are breaking the law with non-violent civil disobedience because they can see how the woeful response of our government to the climate crisis is leading us all into a terrifying future.
“It’s important that jurors are allowed to hear about these reasons for people breaking the law – when we can no longer trust our government to keep us safe, we need to find ways of speaking up.”
The protesters outside Worcester Crown Court will be running the risk of the same prosecution for espousing the principles of jury equity despite it being a well established rule of law, one which is even set in marble at the original entrance to the Old Bailey.
Satya Robyn added: “Regardless of your feelings about civil disobedience, I hope that you would agree that the effects of climate change and ecological damage are already with us, and will only get worse.
“I hope that you believe in free speech, and in the right of jurors to make up their own mind about how eco-activists should be sentenced. I do, and that’s why I’m here.”
Law professor Richard Vogler, a defender of the campaign, said: “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 … 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.”
