Memo to Irish journalists: When a court says someone is not guilty of a crime because they had a lawfully excuse, simply, it means there was no crime. No if, buts, or puffs. You might think what they did was right or wrong, you may hold the view it was a crime, however the facts are a not guilty verdict means there was no criminal act. A perpetrated act is not a criminal act unless there is a guilty verdict.
When five anti-war protesters were acquitted of causing damage without a lawful excuse to a US Navy aeroplane some in the Irish media got it erroneously to misleadingly wrong. Besides this, the ongoing reporting of the trial was thin on the ground, while the coverage of the verdict was somewhat buried according to Harry Browne’s column in this weeks Village magazine (due online on August 11).
In last week’s edition of the same publication, Harry Browne and William Hederman give the most in-depth explanation Blurred Keys has seen of the lead up the allowance of the lawfully excuse plea. A sub-article states, “It has emerged uncontested in all three trials that the Pitstop Ploughshares did nothing to interfere with the garda on duty in the Shannon hangar and comforted him when he appeared distressed by their presence. It also emerged that they completed their "disarmament" to their own satisfaction before handing over their tools voluntarily”. Allegations that the protesters did otherwise have just, well, vanished into the archives.
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