4th December 2023: HXR members risk arrest at Defend our Juries actions across the UK

Health professionals joined over 500 protestors at the Defend our Juries day of action outside Crown Courts across the country. This silent action was a protest about the erosion of our democratic rights: the right to protest peacefully; the centuries-old right of jurors to be able to acquit defendants according to their consciences (even if they disagree with the judge) and the right of defendants to explain to jurors the reasons, evidence and motivations that led them to act.

This is, effectively, a constitutional crisis about which we should all be deepy worried. Under our current government, our rights to a fair trial is at risk, with some judges silencing defendants and even criminalising them for contempt of court for sharing this established legal principle outside a court, or for mentioning ‘the climate’ or ‘fuel poverty’ in their defence to the jury.

Read more at:

Defend our Juries site

Professor Richard Vogler’s Guardian article “Juries do have the right to follow their consciences”

The Barrister article “We are all Trudi Warner”

Article about HXR member Kathy Fallon at the Manchester action.

Photos show HXR members braving the weather to protest outside crown courts in Birmingham, Swindon, Manchester, Plymouth, Truro and Worcester.