Am I missing something...

[stealthracer]

... or does this really render the very concept of a jury completely redundant/farcical?

Comments

[anonymous_james]

Why didn't he just say.... "You must find them innocent"

[kimkali]

If this was a teevee phone in it would be all over the front pages as a fix.

[beeblebear]

I would quite like the jury to, at the end of deliberations, say thay cannot reach a verdict because the verdict they wish to pass has been denied them.

[stealthracer]

I believe that would come under the "Open, Narrative" verdict option, which is, apparently, thus far still available to them.

[winterdreamer]

Sadly so.

But i categorized believing that the courts and police were about justice and protecting the public sometime ago into the same category of tooth fairy and santa.

[evilref]

It's not clear to me from the article that the verdict has been denied them. It looks to me like they've been told that they mustn't return a verdict of "unlawful killing" unless they believe that a specific person should answer a "serious charge" -- murder or manslaughter.

However, judges directing juries -- or dismissing cases altogether, denying the jury a chance to speak -- is not uncommon in English courts.

[sea_cucumber]

That's pretty fail :|