Hamas member guilty of UK knife attack

[butchstewie]

Just an absolute WTF all round.

Suspected Hamas member guilty of UK knife attack

[_Rodders_]

So they caught the attack on video and it still wasn't a unanimous verdict.

Mind boggling.

[seabod91]

Why was he here. How in the world was he granted asylum.

[Mr Penguin]

_Rodders_ said:

So they caught the attack on video and it still wasn't a unanimous verdict.

Mind boggling.

Yet another example of why we should end jury trials.

[irc]

Mr Penguin said:

Yet another example of why we should end jury trials.

Three days to convict him!!!!1 Time for non jury trials. The disadvantages far outweighed by cost savings and the likes of this thing having less chance of escaping justice.

Presumably there were sympathetic members of the jury reluctant to convict as they sympathise with the Palestinian cause and can't separate that from an attack on a bailiff going about his daily job.

Would there have been a conviction if the thug hadn't been under surveillance at the time?

[otolith]

_Rodders_ said:

So they caught the attack on video and it still wasn't a unanimous verdict.

Mind boggling.

The video only establishes what he did. His defence was based on why he did it. He claimed that he was acting in self defence and that his state of mind was affected by previous trauma. The jury would have accepted the facts of the video but would have had to decide whether his defence for his actions held water. He clearly failed to persuade enough of them and they reached the right conclusion. I think it's actually in favour of jury trial that they thought about what they were asked enough that some of them remained unsure.

There could be legitimate cases of self defence which have video evidence of the accused clearly slashing at someone with a knife.