The problem with trial by jury is that the jury may exercise their own judgement and come up with a surprise decision. Hence the acquittal of four British men accused of planning to blow up planes while three of their co-defendants were convicted of conspiracy to murder.
That the three men were up to no good is beyond doubt. But, although the prosecution were obviously keen to convict them of planning to bomb planes, they produced no evidence of this. Not enough evidence to convince a jury of ordinary people, that is.
As a result the CPS (ie the State) will be asking for a retrial, so they can get the outcome they want (a bit like the EU with regard to the Irish no vote on the Lisbon Constitution). In other words, they wanted a show trial but the British public let them down by exercising their own judgement. No wonder Blair and his successors want to do away with traditional trial by jury.
On the other hand we have a jury acquitting a bunch of environmental campaigners of criminal damage at Kingsnorth Power Station (£35,000' worth). The campaigners had intended to write 'Gordon, bin it' but only got as far as 'Gordon'. Oh well.
None of the political bloggers I have read has said anything about the 'plane' bombers re-trial/show trial but they are all fulminating about the Greenpeace activists being let off. Plenty of links here.
It seems to be a requirement of all libertarian or right-wing bloggers to espouse a virulent global-warming-conspiracy/scam attitude, hence their frothing about this issue. No doubt they, too, would like to do away with trial by jury.
That the three men were up to no good is beyond doubt. But, although the prosecution were obviously keen to convict them of planning to bomb planes, they produced no evidence of this. Not enough evidence to convince a jury of ordinary people, that is.
As a result the CPS (ie the State) will be asking for a retrial, so they can get the outcome they want (a bit like the EU with regard to the Irish no vote on the Lisbon Constitution). In other words, they wanted a show trial but the British public let them down by exercising their own judgement. No wonder Blair and his successors want to do away with traditional trial by jury.
On the other hand we have a jury acquitting a bunch of environmental campaigners of criminal damage at Kingsnorth Power Station (£35,000' worth). The campaigners had intended to write 'Gordon, bin it' but only got as far as 'Gordon'. Oh well.
None of the political bloggers I have read has said anything about the 'plane' bombers re-trial/show trial but they are all fulminating about the Greenpeace activists being let off. Plenty of links here.
It seems to be a requirement of all libertarian or right-wing bloggers to espouse a virulent global-warming-conspiracy/scam attitude, hence their frothing about this issue. No doubt they, too, would like to do away with trial by jury.
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