Dutch human rights activist, Olax Outis had no “lawful defence” and was stopped from give a closing speech – but was acquitted by the jury in a verdict seen as a snub to a system complicit in Genocide.
No doubt the sentencing of the Palestine Action activists influenced the outcome here. In that case the jury convicted them of criminal damage and the judge used that to sentence them as terrorists. Pulling a bait and switch like that has consequences. The intended consequence was to intimidate protesters into silence. The actual consequence was to destroy confidence in the legal process. This jury knew that any guilty verdict would give the judge free rein to do the same trick, and they knew what an injustice that would be. The jury did the right thing, given that they were acting within a broken system.
No doubt the sentencing of the Palestine Action activists influenced the outcome here. In that case the jury convicted them of criminal damage and the judge used that to sentence them as terrorists. Pulling a bait and switch like that has consequences. The intended consequence was to intimidate protesters into silence. The actual consequence was to destroy confidence in the legal process. This jury knew that any guilty verdict would give the judge free rein to do the same trick, and they knew what an injustice that would be. The jury did the right thing, given that they were acting within a broken system.