WORCESTERSHIRE protesters have been taking part in a nationwide morning of action to 'Defend our Juries'.
The group's protest outside Worcester Crown Court - the city's highest court - was timed with similar ones across the country on Monday, (September 25), to take place before 10am when cases typically begin to be heard.
The group says the protest is about the centuries-old right of all jurors in British courtrooms to acquit a defendant according to their conscience and irrespective of the directions of the judge.
Protesters held up signs saying: "Juries have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience" and "The right of jurors to give their verdict according to their convictions".
A spokesperson for the Defend Our Juries campaign says the demonstration is needed: "Amid mounting public concern that political trials, such as the trial over the toppling of the statue of the slave-trader Edward Colston into Bristol harbour, are being turned into show trials."
The spokesperson said: "After a succession of acquittals by jury, including the acquittal of the Colston 4 in January 2022, appeared to embarrass the government and certain corporate interests, Suella Braverman introduced plans to reduce the influence of jury trials.
"In the case of the Colston 4, she decided that the Bristol jury had got it wrong, and brought a successful appeal to the Court of Appeal.
“Measures being taken by courts now include banning defendants from explaining to the jury why they did what they did – and holding anyone who disobeys in contempt of court.
"In recent months, some people have been sent to prison for simply trying to explain their actions, for example by using the words ‘climate change’ and ‘fuel poverty’ in court."
Lucy Porter, 48, a former primary school teacher, said: "I’m doing this because it’s so important that the legal system does not stop people from telling the whole truth in court, and does not stop jurors from making the decision they think is right when they have all the information.
"Our society often seems to allow those in power to lie with impunity, but the truth - the whole truth - ought to matter.
"At times like these, it is more important than ever that rights which have been enshrined in law for hundreds of years are not abandoned.”
Melanie Jamieson from Malvern said: "The right of juries to decide according to their conscience was established after a jury was locked up for refusing to convict two Quaker preachers in the 1670s.
"As a Quaker myself I cannot allow this right to be eroded.”
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