{"id":16623,"date":"2024-10-31T09:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T09:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=16623"},"modified":"2024-10-27T13:17:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T13:17:10","slug":"defend-our-juries-24-oct-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=16623","title":{"rendered":"Defend Our Juries – 24 Oct 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Defend Our Juries Free Political Prisoners<\/strong>: A week ago I went to photograph an unusual protest which took the form of an exhibition, the Free Political Prisoners Exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Defend<\/a>
London, UK. 24 Oct 24. Marchers with pictures of political prisoners and other banners and posters arrive at the Attorney General\u2019s office at the Ministry of Justice to call on him to free the 40 UK political prisoners jailed for protesting peacefully against fossil fuel and Israeli arms companies. They demand an end to judges stopping defendants explaining the motive for their protests and uphold the right of jurors to make decisions based on their conscience. Peter Marshall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.10169134705895467&type=3<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest was organised by Defend Our Juries, a group set up following recent trials in which juries have been prevented from hearing the defences of those on trial and have been directed by judges that they cannot follow their consciences in coming to their verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Defend<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is a part of what was on the leaflet that they handed out during the exhibition. You can find more about the campaign on their web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why do juries need defending<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Juries put the moral sense of ordinary people into the heart of the criminal justice system. In recent years, juries have repeatedly acquitted those taking nonviolent direct action to advance climate, racial, and animal justice. These verdicts are deeply embarassing to the goverment and the arms and oil industries, industry lobbyists such as Lord Walney have promoted extraordinary measures to try and stop them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People on trial have been banned from using the words ‘climate change’ or ‘fuel poverty’ in court and have even been jailed just for defying that ban,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usual legal defences have been removed by seemingly biased jusges. People have been arrested and prosecuted for displaying the centuries-old principle of jury equite – juries can find a person on trial not guilty as a matter of conscience, regardless of what the judge directs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\"Defend<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They had come to the Justice Ministry to protest outside the office of Attorney General Richard Hermer KC to ask him to agree to Chris Packham\u2019s and Dale Vince\u2019s request for an open and transparent public meeting to discuss the measures necessary to restore the fundamental rights to protest and fair trial essential to a functioning democracy, as called for by the United Nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Defend<\/a>
A marcher holds a picture of Roger Hallam in the exhibition outside the Attorney General\u2019s office<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As well as some of the UK’s current political prisons including those from Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action currently serving long prison sentences for non-violent direct action the posters in the show featured many other political prisoner from around the world and throughout history such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Martin Luther King Jr “peaceful change-makers <\/em>[who] should be celebrated as essential to upholding democracy<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Reverend Billy of the NY Church of Earthalujah sits with pictures of political prisoners.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Among those taking part in the protest were William Talen, better known as the Reverend Billy, and members of his Stop Shopping Choir<\/a> from New York, currently on a UK tour who I was pleased to meet again having photographed him at various protests in London in earlier years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More pictures on Facebook<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defend Our Juries Free Political Prisoners: A week ago I went to photograph an unusual protest which took the form of an exhibition, the Free Political Prisoners Exhibition. https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.10169134705895467&type=3 The protest was organised by Defend Our Juries, a group set up following recent trials in which juries have been prevented from hearing the defences of … Continue reading Defend Our Juries – 24 Oct 2024<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[18507,1566,127,44,3130,18509,18508,146,128,10349,6585,9345,45,1037,12277,18512,15206,17,18513,190,18516,1170,83,18518,18519,10113,3214,16,18517,4264,18514,18515,530,11330,524,17484,18510,18511],"class_list":["post-16623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-attorney-general","tag-civil-rights","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-corporate-greed","tag-defend-our-juries","tag-european-convention-on-human-rights","tag-exhibition","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-free-political-prisoners","tag-freedom-to-protest","tag-government-lies","tag-home-office","tag-human-rights","tag-international-law","tag-jury-equity","tag-just-stop-oil","tag-london","tag-lord-walney","tag-ministry-of-justice","tag-oil-and-arms-lobbyists","tag-peaceful-protest","tag-peter-marshall","tag-petter-france","tag-policy-exchange","tag-political-pressure","tag-political-prisoners","tag-protest","tag-public-exhibition","tag-repression","tag-rev-bill","tag-richard-hermer-kc","tag-road-block","tag-silent-protest","tag-species-extinction","tag-stop-shopping-choir","tag-uk-arm","tag-united-nations-day-free-political-prisoners"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16632,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16623\/revisions\/16632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}