Jean Charles de Menezes inquest: Jury reaches open verdict


From The Telegraph, the jury return an open verdict on the killing of De Menezes:

After a three-month hearing costing an estimated £6 million, jurors rejected a verdict that the innocent Brazilian had been killed lawfully by police.

They returned an ambigious, open verdict – the only other option they were given after the coroner ruled they could not find that Mr de Menezes was illegally shot dead by officers.

For those of us not completely familiar with the nuances of legal language, we are told:

The coroner had directed them to find an open verdict only if they rejected that the two marksmen who shot dead Mr de Menezes, “were acting in lawful defence of themselves or others” having “honestly although mistakenly” believed that he was a suicide bomber.

The BBC’s explanation of the verdict is also interesting: the jury decided that firearms officer C12 did not shout the warning, “armed police”. This is apparently consistent with the “Kratos” policy explained here.

How things have changed since Lee Clegg was convicted of murder and since I was trained as an armed guard and armed guard commander in the UK, facing an IRA threat.

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Comments & Responses

One Response so far.

  1. grahaminn says:

    “The coroner had directed them to find an open verdict only if they rejected that the two marksmen who shot dead Mr de Menezes, “were acting in lawful defence of themselves or others” having “honestly although mistakenly” believed that he was a suicide bomber.”

    I find it unacceptable that the judiciary can tell a jury how to rule. I’d It’s commonplace today but I’d like to know the history of it.

    Describing people as ‘marksmen’ who swarm an unarmed, non-threatening target and pump him full of lead at close range with pistols seems to be a rather flexible use of the English language too.