>from the Guardian site http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/ Tuesday July
>27, 1999
>
>
>
>The Lord confronts the brothers Brigham by John Vidal
>
>
>
>5.09am
>
>
>Rosy-fingered dawn in the east, deep peace on the Norfolk land, three crows
>heading west in a lazy flap and a meticulously planned Greenpeace raid on
>the third of Britain's seven GM farm trial sites is about to go horribly
>wrong.
Amazingly Lord Melchett and the other Greenpeace activists were acquitted by a unamimous decision at a jury trial yesterday 20 Sept 2000.
>Twenty-eight Greenpeace volunteers were acquitted today of criminal damage
> at Norwich Crown Court. The volunteers had
> gone on trial on September 4th
> on charges relating to a Greenpeace action at
> Lyng, Norfolk, on 26th July,
> 1999, where part of an experimental crop of
> genetically modified (GM) maize
> was cut down and sealed in bags as part of a
> campaign to prevent genetic
> contamination of the environment.
The jury accepted the argument that although they were deliberately destroying the field of GM maize, they were acting to stop the damage the GM maize was doing to surrounding crops.
There is always the possibility of democratic influences on justice under the jury system, and it appears that English juries may now not convict GM activists. Farmers and the GM industry are in dismay about the crumbling of one small aspect of the repressive structure of the state.
This in the same month as the public has overwhelmingly supported blockades of petrol depots in disregard of the damage to the environment by use of petrol.
The population may be fickle but it is not passive.
Chris Burford
London