Man who claimed to be racist to get out of jury duty faces prosecution

A British man was selected to be a juror, but his conscious prevented him from accepting the honor. In a letter to the Southampton Crown Court, he heroically admitted that he is racist. “I strongly believe that it would be a serious injustice to the legal system to select me for jury service," the man wrote in a letter, The Daily Echo reported. 

It's rare for racist people to recognize that they are racist, but not this man. “I hold extreme prejudices against homosexuals and black/foreign people and couldn’t possibly be impartial if either appeared in court," his letter said, according to The Daily Echo. "Therefore it would not be in the court’s interest to have me a juror."

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Unfortunately for him, "pretend to be racist!" has long been popular advice given to people desperate to get out of jury duty. This perhaps explains why Judge Gary Burrell didn't believe him. The judge wondered if the juror was just trying to game the system, the Daily Telegraph reported. 

So Judge Burrell came up with the perfect compromise: he let the man get out of jury duty, and in exchange, Burrell publicly insulted him and prosecuted him under the under the Contempt of Court act. "You are someone who should not be on the jury," Burrell said, according to the Telegraph. "I also question whether you should be doing anything responsible in society at all."