I, Angie Zelter, of Larch House, Knucklas, Powys, LD71PN believe there is a serious constitutional crisis taking place in our courts. For this reason I am standing outside the Inner London Crown Court, on 15th May 2023, to remind Jurors of their rights. I will be holding up a placard that tells the jurors they have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience. They will be hearing and giving a verdict in a trial of yet more supporters of Insulate Britain1.
I should not need to do this but many people involved in nonviolent civil resistance to prevent government criminality are being denied their basic rights under British law. I have to act. At this Inner London Crown Court, Judge Reid has ruled that Insulate Britain supporters cannot mention their motivations to a jury, cannot talk about fuel poverty, insulation, government inaction or the climate crisis – if they do they are sent to prison for contempt of court. This is a serious breach of our right to a fair trial. Everyone has a fundamental right to defend themselves by explaining their motivations, intentions and reasons for their acts. But now we are seeing these rights being silenced at a time when protest rights themselves are under threat. Instead of show trials we in the UK are meant to have public trials where the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – the pledge we take when we go into the witness box – can be heard by everyone, including the jury.
Juries have been acquitting defendants when they have heard the real facts about climate collapse and government inertia. Judge Reid did not want such acquittals to happen in his court and has thus tampered with defendants rights that have been enshrined in British Law for centuries. He has sent defendants2 to prison for contempt of court for mentioning the motivations for their actions. However, this assault on the Insulate Britain defendants’ rights to a fair trial did not go unopposed.
Some supporters, of those defendants who were put in prison for contempt of court and denied their right to a fair trial, decided to inform jurors in other cases coming before the same judge of their rights to decide for themselves whether to acquit or not. They shared publicly available information outside the court – that juries have an absolute right to acquit according to their consciences. But these supporters now found themselves arrested, their houses searched and have been charged with either perverting the course of justice or contempt of court. The cases of the first 4 people arrested are currently either with the Attorney General for review or with the police3.
Jury rights to acquit even against a Judge’s determination of guilt is an important measure to protect us all from the tyrannical abuse of power. 12 ordinary men and women are selected at random to decide upon the guilt or innocence of the defendant. They are there to ensure that common sense, basic ethical standards and conscience come into play. So that corrupt or abusive processes that may emerge and may influence our Judges can still be held to account.
I am now standing in solidarity outside the jury entrance with a replica of the sign that Trudi Warner held and for which her case is being decided by the Attorney General. The sign has a quote from information that has hung on the Old Bailey wall for centuries. It is the same information that I gave to the jury that acquitted me after a group of us nonviolently disarmed a Hawk Jet that was being exported to the Suharto regime in Indonesia that was bombing East Timor and committing genocide on distinct indigenous tribes there. At this trial, held in Liverpool, I was allowed to present my evidence and to remind the jury of their right to acquit whatever the judge might say to the contrary. Despite the appalling prejudice that Judge Wickham showed in our trial nevertheless the Jury had enough information to enable the jury to vote with their consciences and acquit. This was in accordance with common morality that abhors the arming of repressive regimes to commit genocide. Again, in Scotland, during the Loch Goil trial at Greenock, I was acquitted by a Jury (though this time the Judge also urged an acquittal as we had a sincere belief backed up by evidence that we were acting to stop a criminal conspiracy to contravene international law namely by threatening to use nuclear weapons).4
I stand for the rule of law in accordance with public morality. The law has no legitimacy without being securely rooted in ethics. I am therefore showing solidarity with all those urging jurors to acquit according to their convictions and for the rights to a free and fair trial to be respected.
1Mary Adams, Judith Bruce, Michael Brown and Lucy Crawford.
2For example, David Nixon, Amy Pritchard, and Cllr Giovanna Lewis
3Trudi Warner’s case is with the AG, Cathy Eastburn, Sally Davidson and Oliver Rock have been bailed to attend Brixton Police Station on 30th June 2023. They were all arrested for perverting the course of justice.
4http://tridentploughsharesarchive.org/ruling-of-sheriff-m-gimblett/