Bartlett's Bizarre Bazaar

Michael over at Mischievous Constructions has posted a piece in which he summarises that points made by Anthony Scrivener, Tony Martin’s QC, in an Evening Standard article yesterday. This lays out the law, in principle and in practice.

In addition to the points made in my previous post, Scrivener is reported as reminding us that: “judges instruct juries to look at the case from the householder's point of view. What counts is what he or she honestly believed”. That: “[j]uries use common sense: they do not like burglars and identify with householders, even in cases where householders have badly beaten up or wounded intruders.” That: “the judge is quite likely to direct the jury to acquit without even calling on the defence.” And that: “[c]onvictions are extremely rare.”

We can expect our media and our politicians to continue to discuss burglary and self-defence without reference to the actual state of the law. But, if we choose to ignore all the evidence, to make conduct politics grounded in myth, and legislate based on faith, then our democracy is a fiction.