Skip to content or view screen version

Drax defendants guilty

Twitter | 03.07.2009 10:56 | Climate Chaos

22 Drax defendants found guilty of obstruction - 7 had already plead guilty.

News is being tweeted out of court - all defendants found guilty of obstruction of the train.
Judge has stated that he will be imposing community service type punishments and no prison time.
Defendants liable for costs and compensation.

Twitter

Additions

Closing statement from the defence

03.07.2009 11:28

Members of the jury.

I'm going to try to summarise why we feel that we are not guilty, why we feel that what we did was right, despite the very proper laws against obstructing trains, why we feel that it was the wrong decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute us in this case, and why we don't feel that we are guilty of a crime.

I want to start by responding to your request for clarification yesterday about "lawful excuse". His honour may say [in his summing up] that it's true that there are ways in law to make space for circumstances, to allow a bigger picture to be considered.

These ways can have different names for different offences — so for example "lawful excuse", which you asked about yesterday, applies only to the charge of criminal damage. For example, last September, a jury in Kent found six protesters not guilty of committing £30,000 worth of criminal damage to Kingsnorth coal-fired power station, since the group were acting to prevent a greater crime. Those on trial did not disagree that criminal damage is a crime, just that, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary and proportionate to cause some damage to prevent a great crime. That jury agreed.

His honour may explain that there is a legal defence of "necessity", that applies to most laws, and that it was on the basis of "necessity" — the fact that we believed our actions were going to save lives and that we had to act — that we prepared a legal defence before this trial. Along with many legal professionals we were very disappointed by his honour's decision prior to the trial that this defence was not available to us in law. Nonetheless we decided not to appeal against it. We felt that you the jury would be free to decide on the facts of a case as you find them - and not just the ones his honour tells you are relevant.

It's up to you to decide whether what we did was necessary. I would like to emphasise to you that we believed and we still believe that it was urgently necessary to do what we did, and proportionate to the scale of the problem, that the consequences of that train taking coal into Drax are so serious that any reasonable person would understand our reasons for stopping it. To help explain why we were so sure of the links between Drax's activities and deaths around the world we had expert witnesses lined up to talk to you about the immediate and ongoing harm that Drax's emissions cause. However from what evidence we have been able to get across to you, with his honour's indulgence, we hope that you can see that these facts speak for themselves, and our actions, though harmful, were indeed necessary to try to stop a greater harm. And if you agree with that then you still have a legal right – as the jury - to find us not guilty.

You've heard it said already I think, that the judge decides about the law, but the jury decide about the facts. What does that mean? It means you the jury can decide as you see fit. You the jury have a constitutional right to follow your own judgement and not necessarily follow the judge's directions to find us guilty. In other words, you get to make the final decision. In law this principle is called the jury's power of nullification, and it's been a right that has been regularly used over the years when juries have felt the law has been applied harshly, or inappropriately, or unjustly, or incorrectly.

Perhaps I can explain this with a quote from a very senior judge, Lord Denning. He said:

"This principle was established as long ago as 1670 in a celebrated case of the Quakers, William Penn and William Mead. All that they had done was to preach in London on a Sunday afternoon. They were charged with causing an unlawful and tumultuous assembly there. The judge directed the jury to find the Quakers guilty, but they refused. The Jury said Penn was guilty of preaching, but not of unlawful assembly. The Judge refused to accept this verdict. He threatened them with all sorts of pains and punishments. He kept them 'all night without meat, drink, fire, or other accommodation: they had not so much as a chamber pot, though desired'. They still refused to find the Quakers guilty of an unlawful assembly. He kept them another night and still they refused. He then commanded each to answer to his name and give his verdict separately. Each gave his verdict 'Not Guilty'. For this the judge fined them 40 marks apiece and cast them into prison until it was paid. One of them Edward Bushell, thereupon brought his (case) before the Court of the King's Bench. It was there held that no judge had any right to imprison a juryman for finding against his direction on a point of law; for the judge could never direct what the law was without knowing the facts, and of the facts the jury were the sole judge. The jury were thereupon set free."

This was affirmed as recently as 2005, in relation to the case of Wang, where a committee of Law Lords in the highest court in the land, the House of Lords, concluded that: "there are no circumstances in which a judge is entitled to direct a jury to return a verdict of guilty". So you do have that right to decide for yourselves. And unlike in 1670, his honour won't be able to fine you, or put you in prison for making what he sees as the wrong decision.

There have been many cases over the years where juries have decided, on reflecting more broadly, to find people not guilty despite directions from the judge. For example, the case of Zelter and others who were accused of damage to an aircraft about to be used for bombing civilians. In all of these and others the judge said that the defendants admitted the offence and so must be found guilty. But the jury chose to look outside the limited view of the court room, and to find them not guilty.

The freedom that you have is what enables the law, where necessary, to move forward. It is what allows you to look beyond the confines of this court to the wider world, and to make a judgement based not just on law, but to make a judgement based on justice. Justice is the force that underpins and breathes life into the law, and it is your role as the jury to see that justice as you see it is done.

We all know that times change, and what was acceptable in one era may not be acceptable in another. You have heard of how it was once legal to own other people, how it was illegal for women to vote. Well one way or another we are going to have to stop burning coal and move on from the fossil fuel era. And that means that the law will eventually have to change and acknowledge the harm that carbon emissions do to all of us, by making them illegal. The only question is whether the law will catch up in time for there to be anything left to protect.

We are not trying to tell you how to decide. We are only trying to say that it is up to you, and we are grateful for that.

I want you to think back to that situation of there being a person on the tracks ahead of that train going on its way to Drax. Members of the Jury, it may sound like a strange thing to say but in truth there is a person on the branch line to Drax. The prosecution have not challenged the facts we presented to you on oath about the consequences of burning coal at Drax. 180 human lives lost every year, species lost forever. There is a direct, unequivocal, proven link between the emissions of carbon dioxide at this power station and the appalling consequences of climate change. That many of those consequences impact on the poor of other nations or people in Hull we don't know and should not in any way negate the reality of this suffering. We got on that train to stop those emissions, because all other methods in our democracy were failing. Just because we don't know the name of the person on the tracks or where they live or the exact time and day of their dying, does not in our view mean they are less worthy of protection.

We don't dispute that there's a law against obstructing trains. We don't dispute that obstructing trains is a crime and should continue to be a crime. We just argue that in this case, we should not be found guilty of a crime for trying to block this train on its way to Drax.

On Tuesday the prosecution argued that what we did was quite simply a crime, and as a result we should be found guilty. They were trying to suggest that if you find us not guilty, the whole world would fall apart. We argue that the more likely route to the whole world falling apart is if we continue burning coal in the enormous quantities that it is being burnt at Drax.

His honour may say that we have been telling you stories, that we are trying to introduce emotions into the trial to distort the evidence. But we have been telling you the facts. If those facts move you, that's because they are moving, and they are what moved us to do what we did.

We are happy to be judged by you, the jury.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to us.

Repost
- Homepage: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/02/drax-protesters-defence-sum-up


Comments

Hide 8 hidden comments or hide all comments

Community Service is a tactic

03.07.2009 11:12

They did this at Stansted - instead of a fine they impose community service as they suspect that fines are paid off by others - community service can't be.

Watch out for ASBO's as well

Essex boy


It was never going to last forever.....

03.07.2009 11:56

The state could not allow the Kingsnorth verdict to become the norm so this became the battleground.

This isn't the end of direct action but it is, perhaps the end of consequence free actions. They will hurt more now but that won't deter those who are truly committed.

Well done to all who placed their liberty and finacial situations at risk. I hope your punishments are reasonable.

Direct Action


"Consequence free"

03.07.2009 12:27

"This isn't the end of direct action but it is, perhaps the end of consequence free actions."

Many, perhaps most, direct actions have had consequences. This accountability is important to some people.

A N Other


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Lessons for Others

03.07.2009 12:54

There are lessons to be learned here for the Ratcliffe defendants and perhaps the Kingsnorth coal ship activists.

There has been some publicity, mainly in the Guardian but that is preaching to the converted. The rest of the press will probably only cover the convictions.

Another tack is needed in the future.

Enviro Scan


No Suprise

03.07.2009 13:26

As 'Direct Action' pointed out, 'free actions' weren't going to be the norm - they were a one off because the outfit they were committed under was the cute campaign group Greenpeace.

Drax/Kingsnorth has become the battle ground for climate change campaigns, just as HLS has become the battle ground for animal liberationists, or EDO has become the battle ground for anti-arms activists. A similar example: the ALF liberates lives but if caught the actions (trespassing to directly save lives from abuse) are now considered a greater crime.

Unfortunately these 'crimes' are going to get heavier. Blockades at HLS a decade ago and the like were only given community service but slowly increased to short-term prison sentences. Now you can face upto 5 years under SOCPA Section 145 - "intereference with contractual relationships so as to harm an animal research organisation".

Given time it is likely that SOCPA will be extended to not just include vivisection laboratories, but all animal inidustries (such as in the USA with AETA), then climate campaigners, all environmentalists, anti-war activists and so on. A solution is start going underground before its too late as civil disobedience won't be worthwhile forever.

no offence


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

response

03.07.2009 13:39

"This isn't the end of direct action but it is, perhaps the end of consequence free actions."

The only actions that are consequence free are utterly inconsequential. Anything that means something will mean consequences for those involved sooner or later. This is nothing new.

anonymous


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Shock

03.07.2009 15:07

The middle class what will have to do something that benafits the working class, well fuck us sideways erm community service you say come clean the blood from the streets of Sheffield another week another shooting meanwhile in another world lets talk about bollocks that would be climate change then.

underclassrising.net


You can refuse to do community service and do prison instead

03.07.2009 16:05

If you want to "fine" the system for finding you guilty, instead of helping it by doing community service, you can always just refuse to do it. You would then be taken to court again and imprisoned, usually for a fairly short time.

For some people that might be a better option, although it might not suit everyone.

Remember keeping someone in prison costs a lot of money, and the prisons are overcrowded as it is - that is why they prefer community punishments for things like this.

anon


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

@no offence

03.07.2009 16:10

"A solution is start going underground before its too late as civil disobedience won't be worthwhile forever"
Civil disobedience will always be worthwhile, but we have to start building an underground network now or we don't know when it /will/ be too late. We have to start sorting out safehouses - not like RampART et al, ones the pigs /don't/ know about - supplies caches, document forging services etc. It's difficult enough now, who knows how hard it will be this time next year.

Kaze no Kae
mail e-mail: alanstevenson@hotmail.co.uk
- Homepage: http://kazenokae.blogspot.com


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

reply

03.07.2009 22:49

"Civil disobedience will always be worthwhile"

If you think it was worthwhile in Nazi Germany then you've lost the plot! More to the point it will get that bad eventually (if things don't change). When civil disobedience results in death, is it really worthwhile, or is it not suicidal? Soon all that will be left will be arming ourselves for a serious insurrection, not a fluffy event to attract potential activists. The rebellion will attract activists for us, social war will be all that's needed to draw in the troops.

me


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

jezus wept

04.07.2009 01:27

what a thread! the antis are out in force today. or is their only one of you? ffs some people got sentenced for doing direct action, all power to them. but they ain't the first, this country has a fine tradition of people breaking the law (and getting told off) to change things that we now accept. they ain't the last, no matter what you write about here - sorry.

god


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

This thread.

04.07.2009 01:48

I find the discussion here incredible. How is it possible that the Guardian commenting readership can be so positive  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/drax-coal-train-trial-guilty and the Indymedia commenters can be so negative?

Liberal


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Support the Drax 29

04.07.2009 07:39

Ignore the trolls and do something to support the 29.

A campaign has been started to help pay the costs.

"There is a big push to do a bit of a whip round to cover their fines - they have already been through so much in doing this - they are all already out of pocket many times over, so they really need help in paying this huge fine.We are trying to get people to pay what they can, or £29 - a pound for every person who was charged.

the Drax 29 Legal Defence Fund Midlands Conservation Club
Sort Code 30-98-00
Account number 02911400"
 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4336

Fundraisers would be good as well.

Wotcha


Hide 8 hidden comments or hide all comments