This came into focus last year when another climate protester, Trudi Warner (no relation to Diana Warner), was accused of contempt of court when she held up a sign outside the inner London high court reading: “Jurors, you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.”.
Dr Diana Warner, 65, told the Guardian she believed the jury had been unfairly “bullied” into the verdict by the judge, who responded that jurors should try the case “on the evidence, not your conscience”.
Warner told the Guardian that the jurors had the right to acquit her based on their conscience, citing a legal principle called jury equity, in which the jury can vote not guilty even when they think the defendant has committed the crime because they believe the law is unjust.
In a video of the action played to the court, Warner said she had carried out the protest because Drax was the “most ridiculous power station on Earth”, adding that the plant, which burns wood pellets, was “chomping through so many trees”.
About an hour after the jury was sent out in the case, jurors presented a note to Judge Kearl KC, the recorder of Leeds, asking: “As a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict.
