Jury nullification, also known in the United Kingdom as jury equity, or a perverse verdict, is when the jury in a criminal trial gives a verdict of not guilty even though they think a defendant has broken the law. The jury's reasons may include the belief that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant's case, that the punishment for breaking the law is too harsh, or general frustrations with the criminal justice system. Some juries have also refused to convict due to their own prejudices in favor of the defendant. Such verdicts are possible because a jury has an absolute right to return any verdict it chooses. Nullification is not an official part of criminal procedure but is the logical consequence of two rules governing the systems in which it exists:
- Jurors cannot be punished for passing an incorrect verdict.
- In many jurisdictions, a defendant who is acquitted cannot be tried a second time for the same offense.
Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, is a British anti-Islam campaigner and one of the UK's most prominent far-right activists. Since 28 October 2024, he has been serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
The United Arab Emirates Five are five activists who were arrested in April 2011 on charges of breaking United Arab Emirates law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, through running an website that expressed anti-government views.
The Bahrain health worker trials were a series of legal cases in which forty-eight doctors, nurses, and dentists faced charges for their actions during the Bahraini uprising of 2011. In September 2011, twenty of the health workers were convicted by a military court of felonies including "stockpiling weapons" and "plotting to overthrow the government". The remaining twenty-eight were charged with misdemeanors and tried separately. The following month, the felony sentences were overturned, and it was announced that the defendants would be retried by a civilian court. Retrials began in March 2012, but were postponed until June 14. Convictions against nine of the defendants were quashed and reduced against another nine. The Court of Cassation upheld the sentences against the remaining nine on 1 October.
The Bahrain Thirteen are thirteen Bahraini opposition leaders, rights activists, bloggers and Shia clerics arrested between 17 March and 9 April 2011 in connection with their role in the national uprising. In June 2011, they were tried by a special military court, the National Safety Court, and convicted of "setting up terror groups to topple the royal regime and change the constitution"; they received sentences ranging from two years to life in prison. A military appeal court upheld the sentences in September. The trial was "one of the most prominent" before the National Safety Court. A retrial in a civilian court was held in April 2012 but the accused were not released from prison. The sentences were upheld again on 4 September 2012. On 7 January 2013, the defendants lost their last chance of appeal when the Court of Cassation, Bahrain's top court upheld the sentences.
Extinction Rebellion is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. Extinction Rebellion was established in Stroud in May 2018 by Gail Bradbrook, Simon Bramwell, Roger Hallam, Stuart Basden, along with six other co-founders from the campaign group Rising Up!
The Stansted 15 are a group of non-violent human rights activists who took action to stop a deportation flight leaving from Stansted Airport, UK on 28 March 2017. The plane, a Titan Airways Boeing 767 was chartered by the UK Home Office to deport 60 migrants to Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Julian Roger Hallam is an environmental activist who co-founded Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain, the cooperative federation organisation Radical Routes, and the political party Burning Pink. In April 2024, Hallam was given a suspended two year sentence for attempting to block Heathrow Airport with drones. In July 2024, Hallam was convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for organising protests to block the M25 motorway two years prior, for which he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Extinction Rebellion (XR), a 2018 UK-founded environmental movement, has since spread to the rest of Europe, the United States, and other countries, forming an international "non-violent civil disobedience" movement through mass protest. XR carries out demonstrations to highlight governments' inaction on climate change. Since 2018, Extinction Rebellion has taken a variety of actions in Europe, the US, and elsewhere in the world, to urge political and economic forces to take action amid the climate crisis. Although, their non-violent disobedience protests are an effort to generate attention around environmental issues, XR activists have become known for civil disobedience and disruptive tactics.
Animal Rising is a British animal activist movement with the stated aim of compelling social change towards animal rights and a plant-based food system. They justify their actions with the impact of animal agriculture on climate change, species extinction and ecosystem breakdown.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was introduced by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. It gives more power to the police, criminal justice, and sentencing legislation, and it encompasses restrictions on "unacceptable" protests, crimes against children, and sentencing limits. It was passed by the Houses of Parliament on 26 April 2022 and received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022.
A series of protests by the group Insulate Britain involving traffic obstruction began on 13 September 2021. The group blockaded the M25 and other motorways in the United Kingdom, and roads in London and the Port of Dover.
Just Stop Oil is a British environmental activist group primarily focused on the issue of human-caused climate change. The group aims to convince the British government to commit to ending new fossil fuel licensing and production using civil resistance, nonviolent direct action, traffic obstruction, and vandalism.
The Last Generation is a group of climate change activists using forms of direct action which is mostly active in Germany, Italy and Poland. It describes itself as an "alliance" and was formed in 2021 from participants in the Hungerstreik der letzten Generation. The term was chosen because they considered themselves to be the last generation before tipping points in the earth's climate system would be reached. The Austria section of Last Generation announced in August 2024 that it would end its activities under that name.
The Climate Emergency Fund (CEF) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization that supports climate change activist groups involved in civil disobedience. It was founded in 2019 by filmmaker Rory Kennedy, a member of the prominent Kennedy family, and Getty family heiress Aileen Getty.
Richard Simon Hermer, Baron Hermer, is a British barrister and life peer who has served as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland since July 2024.
Phoebe Plummer is a British climate activist. First inspired by a United Nations report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, they joined Just Stop Oil in August 2022 and were arrested three times in their first week. An October 2022 protest in which they and Anna Holland threw tomato soup at a Vincent van Gogh painting at London's National Gallery caused worldwide outrage and £10,000 worth of damage to the frame but empowered activists to carry out similar actions. Plummer was sentenced the month after for blocking the M25 motorway. The following November, Holland and other activists caused tailbacks on multiple roads in West London with a slow march protest, for which they faced the first jury trial under section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023.
On 14 October 2022, Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland threw two tins of Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup at a Sunflowers painting by Vincent van Gogh at the National Gallery in London, glued themselves to the wall, and asked the crowd whether they were more concerned by the protest or the effects of climate change on the planet. They had been inspired to do so by the decrease in media coverage of the organisation's activism and selected that painting due to its vulnerability. Their act earned the pair worldwide censure and queerphobic abuse and caused £10,000 worth of damage to the picture's frame but inspired several subsequent activists to throw other foodstuffs at other paintings. The pair were convicted of criminal damage in July 2024 by Christopher Hehir, who sentenced Plummer to 24 months in prison and Holland to 20 months in September 2024 to criticism from George Monbiot and Nadya Tolokonnikova.
Christopher Joseph Hehir is a British judge. Called to the bar in 1990, he later sat as a judge at Southwark Crown Court and a London Nightingale Court. In July 2024, he convicted Roger Hallam to five years in prison and four other protesters to four years each for their parts in the Just Stop Oil M25 blockade case, prompting criticism from over 1,200 artists, athletes, and academics. He then sentenced Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland to 24 and 20 months over their parts in the Just Stop Oil Sunflowers protest in spite of an open letter imploring him otherwise, prompting various writers to compare their crimes to those committed by those he had previously given suspended sentences to.
Anna Holland is a British climate activist. Born in northwest England, they joined Just Stop Oil in May 2022 and met Phoebe Plummer at a Trafalgar Square roadblock that October. Later that month, the pair threw soup at a painting of Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, prompting worldwide outrage and earning the pair queerphobic abuse. The reaction from their family prompted Holland to retreat from frontline activism. In September 2024, Christopher Hehir sentenced Holland to 20 months in prison for their part in the act, prompting criticism.
