Kerre Woodham: Legal logic gets torn asunder by crazed zealots

I really don't like zealots. All that intensity and fervour - as well as all that hair - makes me very uneasy.

The Waihopai Three, as the members of the Ploughshare anti-war movement have become known, walked free from court this week after the jury bought the men's defence of claim of right - that when they caused $1 million worth of damage to the Waihopai satellite communications centre, they had acted unlawfully but that their belief that they were acting in a greater good gave their actions legitimacy.

To be fair, the jury was given pretty clear instructions by the judge in the case.

Stephen Harrop told the jury that if the men believed that they were acting lawfully, even if they were mistaken in that belief, the three must be acquitted. Less than two hours later, the men walked free to celebrate their legal victory.

No doubt the elderberry wine flowed late into the night while the rest of the country was left scratching its collective head.

Whether you sympathise with the men's beliefs, it's a very odd decision. Legal experts say it won't set a precedent because the decision was made by a jury, not a judge.

But you can bet your legal aid dollars that every lobby group in the land will be heartened and emboldened by this decision - anti-abortionists and the pig and chicken liberators, in particular.

The Crown Law office is considering its position: verdicts that have been reached by a jury can be appealed but only if there is a question of law.

Once a question of law is reserved, there needs to be an answer and once there is an answer, there needs to be a remedy.

Sometimes, the verdict stands but the law is corrected. Other times, there's a retrial.

Watch this space.

Perhaps the cork has been pulled from the elderberry wine a little prematurely.

But one thing is for certain. All the tosh coming from these men about their non-violent action achieving significant things and saving the lives of the women and children in Iraq is just that - tosh.

Ripping a plastic dome in the peaceful valley of Waihopai hasn't prevented one drop of blood from being spilled in Iraq.

But that's the problem with zealots. Logic and reason are superceded by fervour and righteousness.

That's not what we want to see in our courts.