Thomas Mair looked unperturbed, sitting in the back of the courtroom behind bullet-proof glass, with 3 Security Guards around him. The 4 charges against him were Murder, Causing Bodily Harm, Possession of a Firearm, and Possession of a Dagger. This was a well-known case as the woman who died was Jo Cox, a British Labour Party politician, a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Batley and Spen constituency. It was Nov. 22nd, 2016 when I attended his trial at Old Bailey in London, as an observer, because I wanted to get a look at him and witness his fair trial. I wanted to hear his story.
Oddly, that never happened.
Thomas Mair had a Defense Lawyer but no defense case was presented. If he had pleaded guilty there would not have even been a trial but since he didn’t plead either way a Not Guilty plea was entered on his behalf, as required by law. Thomas Mair gave no evidence in his defense and his Lawyer seemed to have no interest in offering a defense. He didn’t present the key witness, the man who had been stabbed, who had come from across the street to help, the reason for the 2nd charge – Causing Bodily Harm. He didn’t even cross examine any witnesses. His summary to the jury was basically a eulogy to Jo Cox, using the same language as the Prosecuting Lawyer, the exact same “sound bites”. It felt like there was an air of consensus in the room. It didn’t feel like a trial.
Jo Cox had been shot 3 times, twice in the head, once in the chest, and stabbed 15 times. There were 56 minutes between the 1st shot at 12:52 and when she was declared dead at 13:48. Six or seven people had gathered at the scene which unfolded over almost an hour, yet no one took a picture so as to incriminate the killer and none of the bystanders attempted to stop the carnage. Oh, Jo Cox’s assistant did make an effort, telling him “Get away from her; she’s got 2 little children”. Supposedly Ms. Cox’s last words were “Let him hurt me, not you”.
How was a woman who’d been shot twice in the head able to say anything, never mind such a scripted sounding statement?!
The jury was told that “trial by jury is the Cornerstone of Democracy and Rule of Law”, and was charged with “the responsibility to weigh the evidence without preconception; that the Prosecution must prove its case to the highest standards”. But there were no photos presented, the key witness didn’t appear & the other witnesses were not cross-examined, the accused didn’t take the stand, and no defense was presented. The Defense and Prosecution presented the case as a united front, and then appealed to the vanity and the sense of Civic Duty of the jury, basically saying, “We’re counting on you, give us the guilty verdict we’ve made clear we want; just do the right thing”. They did the right thing. Right?
I listened to the podcast Bella Sassin made after she attended the trial of Thomas Mair. I didn’t know anything about Jo Cox, except that Jack Buckby should have won her vacated seat, but if I had been on the jury I would have wanted more info. Stabbing someone 15 times is more personal than murdering them. Why was he so angry at her? Was he mentally competent or just a madman? And the crowd; even if there were no strong men I can’t imagine a group of people not joining together in an effort to stop the frenzied man.
The dying statement attributed to Jo Cox makes no sense. Why, if she was able to speak at all, would she assume that the killer wasn’t going to kill everyone in the area, if he wasn’t stopped.
So angry, but yet not angry enough to tell the jury why.
I’ve since found an article about the case, here, which answered most of my questions. There seems to have been many incriminating internet searches made by Thomas Mair for far-right material, and searches for information on Mrs Cox and .22 rifles. He even looked at the American neo-Nazi news site Daily Stormer and searched for information about Dylan Roof, who was convicted of killing nine black Americans in Charleston in 2015.
In other words, he had put a lot of thought into his plan.
Even though the Defense was wrong to not at least present a pretense of defense, I do believe the jury was right to convict.
Or was it?
Hear ‘After Dark 4’ by Bella Sassin
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Pearlbuck
