CORNWALL protesters risked arrest by holding signs declaring the rights of juries and defendants outside Truro Crown Court this morning.

Defend Our Juries’ national day of action was planned to assert the right of British jurors to acquit a defendant according to their conscience, and the right of defendants to explain (and the jury to hear) the reasons for their actions.

Campaigners claim both juries and defendants are being denied these rights. In July, 11 members of the public who sat outside Southwark Crown Court were arrested on suspicion of contempt of court and detained for several hours before being released. The activists were holding placards the judge determined could be interpreted as influencing a jury.

Defend Our Juries also claims defendants are being banned from explaining their motivation to the jury  – for example, by citing “climate change” or “fuel poverty” - and being removed from court or even imprisoned for trying to do so; and are also prohibited from explaining the principle of ‘jury nullification’ – the ability of the jury to deliver a not-guilty verdict based on personal beliefs or sympathies with the defendant.

The campaigners also highlighted the plight of two people with Cornish connections who were sentenced following a peaceful protest on the M25.

Earlier this month, Paul Sousek, from Bude, and Gaie Delap, whose family lives in Cornwall, were among five defendants imprisoned for between 20 and 24 months for “causing a public nuisance”. This was contrasted with sentences of between two and 30 months for those convicted of violent disorder in recent weeks.

Gaie’s daughter Lily said: “My mother is a Quaker, a grandmother, a caring and loving individual. It seems cruel beyond words that she should be locked up for nearly two years for a peaceful protest when violent thugs receive a few months for rioting and terrifying local people.”

Mr Sousek’s friend, Oliver Baines, from Truro, added: “Paul is 73, with a serious and disabling health condition following a heart attack two years ago – yet he was given a 20-month prison sentence for a peaceful protest he said he would not repeat. Is that justice?”

A letter will be submitted to the judges at Truro Crown Court to express their “deep concern” at these developments.

Truro Voice contacted the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary for comment; both declined.