Restrictions on jury trials will put real justice at risk | Letters

Dr Joanna Gilmore and Prof David Mead on Sir Brian Leveson’s proposals to help deal with a backlog in the criminal courts. Plus letters from former crown court judge Owen Davies KC and a sitting magistrateA likely by-product of the plans to make drastic changes to jury trials to help deal with the backlog in the criminal courts will be the effect on those campaigning for transformative social justice (Jury-free trials proposed to save criminal justice system from collapse, 9 July).We can think of three cumulative effects. First, trial by jury represents the only chance for activists who are prosecuted to put their moral case to 12 of their peers, to seek civic exculpation from the reach of oppressive criminal laws. History is replete with examples of acquittals by juries performing the role of conscience of the nation: in January 2022, three Extinction Rebellion activists who stopped a rush-hour train for a little over an hour in central London were acquitted. Continue reading...

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