WHAT'S GOING ON?

I'm sure most of you have read This story and been appalled by it. This post isn't particularly about that - I'm just using it as an example. So, what's going on? Read on and find out.

If you are part of the jury on a court case, it doesn't matter WHAT the judge directs you to do, you can bring in any verdict you like. ANY. They could have brought in a 'Not Guilty' verdict, and much as the judge  CPS and men in wigs might have hated it they would have no option but to immediately release him. And thus they would have introduced a defence in law that invalidated the "Strict Liability" rule. It could have been used repeatedly in the future in like circumstances.

The system call this a jury returning a "Perverse Verdict" and they absolutely hate it. Now you know why this government (and the Tories too - 'she' started this) are trying to do away with juries. You see - the jury IS the court: not the building, not the lawyers, not the CPS, not the judge, and not even the government, Parliament or the Queen herself - THE JURY! That's you. You can bring in any verdict you wish, thus creating new law, or no verdict at all if you can't all agree.

They all absolutely hate mere ordinary people - us -  knowing about this.

So remember - if you're on a jury, you don't have to take the blindest bit of notice of the judge - decide as YOU think right.

The death sentence was removed from so many - hundreds - of trivial offences in the seventeenth century, offences such as stealing to avoid starvation, or little more than anti-social behaviour, because juries started refusing to find a guilty verdict even when the case was open-and-shut, because they believed people should not face execution over such trivial matters. So you can find a verdict entirely contrary to the evidence, and there's damn all that they can do about it. And they can certainly do nothing to you.

Defend the jury system at every opportunity ... your life may depend on it. They don't have juries on the continent - and the EU will try to bring us into line with everyone else. Fight it at every opportunity - your life may depend on it.

It's another one of our ancient liberties - liberties the non-anglo-saxon world do not have because they do not have the common law - only we and countries populated by our descendants have this - even the American constitution was written by British-descended people with OUR ancient liberties in mind. DO NOT allow those liberties to be taken away - our ancestors kept them alive for us - be sure to keep them alive for our descendants.

Now you know what's going on.

Oh, and while I'm on the case - you, as a jury member, can ask questions of all witnesses, even the defendant him/herself if they're on the stand. You don't have to rely on the judge or the lawyers - you pass a note to the judge saying you have a question to ask the witness - then either the judge will ask the question for you, or you get to ask it yourself. You can utterly spoil stitch-ups between the lawyers. And you can INSIST on asking - remember - YOU are the court. And you can ask as many questions as you like - provided they are relevant to the case.

That's another thing they don't tell you when you become a jury member. They hate us ordinary mortals knowing we have enormous powers when we are serving on a jury. We in effect BECOME something that the system has to obey, and that they hate - they're more accustomed to US having to obey THEM ... the way they like it.. And that's why they're trying to abolish juries. Juries are our last safeguard, but only if the jury knows its rights. So the old rule applies:

use it or lose it.

I recommend you use it.

Morg
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