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Interesting piece on Jury Nullification. If you are not familier with the concept it allows for a jury to find a person guilty of the crime but the crime as unjust or repugnant.
www.rawilson.com/chaos.shtml
"An old idea has resurfaced that may have major potential to slow or even reverse the terrifying erosion of the Bill of Rights under the Reagan-Bush team and their right-wing Supreme Court. I refer to the revival of the ancient Saxon doctrine of Jury Nullification which has now become a projected Constitutional amendment under consideration in 22 states.
Since Mr. Justice Brennan, the last plumb-line defender of civil liberties, has retired, and the Supreme Court seems fated to move even further toward the authoritarian right-wing, only Jury Nullification can preserve what still remains in this perishing Republic of Anglo-American libertarianism.
Jury Nullification rests upon an old Common Law principle (which Lysander Spooner in his scholarly "Essay on Trial by Jury" [1852] proved to underlie the Jury clause of Magna Carta) -- viz, that the only way to prevent the government from imposing unjust or nefarious laws is to grant juries the right to negate such laws. This right, as Spooner demonstrated, explains the tradition that a jury should consist of twelve citizens selected at random and thereby representing (as far as scientifically possible) the full range of common sense and common morality of the population in general (including the recalcitrants and cranks among us, upon whom liberty has always depended in bad times.)
In a once popular formulation, the doctrine of Jury Nullification holds that "a jury may judge the law as well as the facts in the case." Since Magna Carta this has been repeatedly upheld by courts in both England and America, only occasionally denied by lower, and currently remains the law of both countries, although judges have no legal obligations to inform juries that they possess this right. "
Something to keep in mind say if you are called for a Marijuana case and you are against the War on Drugs
JSin
<Note the site has the most annoying animated gif I have ever been bombarded with>
www.rawilson.com/chaos.shtml
"An old idea has resurfaced that may have major potential to slow or even reverse the terrifying erosion of the Bill of Rights under the Reagan-Bush team and their right-wing Supreme Court. I refer to the revival of the ancient Saxon doctrine of Jury Nullification which has now become a projected Constitutional amendment under consideration in 22 states.
Since Mr. Justice Brennan, the last plumb-line defender of civil liberties, has retired, and the Supreme Court seems fated to move even further toward the authoritarian right-wing, only Jury Nullification can preserve what still remains in this perishing Republic of Anglo-American libertarianism.
Jury Nullification rests upon an old Common Law principle (which Lysander Spooner in his scholarly "Essay on Trial by Jury" [1852] proved to underlie the Jury clause of Magna Carta) -- viz, that the only way to prevent the government from imposing unjust or nefarious laws is to grant juries the right to negate such laws. This right, as Spooner demonstrated, explains the tradition that a jury should consist of twelve citizens selected at random and thereby representing (as far as scientifically possible) the full range of common sense and common morality of the population in general (including the recalcitrants and cranks among us, upon whom liberty has always depended in bad times.)
In a once popular formulation, the doctrine of Jury Nullification holds that "a jury may judge the law as well as the facts in the case." Since Magna Carta this has been repeatedly upheld by courts in both England and America, only occasionally denied by lower, and currently remains the law of both countries, although judges have no legal obligations to inform juries that they possess this right. "
Something to keep in mind say if you are called for a Marijuana case and you are against the War on Drugs
JSin
<Note the site has the most annoying animated gif I have ever been bombarded with>
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Re: Jury Nullification
Sat, December 13, 2008 - 12:16 PMVery interesting. I was wondering if this concept has been used in the American court system lately.
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Re: Jury Nullification
Thu, December 18, 2008 - 7:14 PM"a jury should consist of twelve citizens selected at random and thereby representing (as far as scientifically possible) the full range of common sense and common morality of the population in general"
i like the idea that a jury could find the defendant guilty but nullify the law .... the above quote strikes a chord with me, as i grumble in my opinionated head about the cherry picking done to find the perfect jury to find the perfect verdict.. this totally negates the random factor of choosing 12 to decide points of law... i think until we returned to a more free flowing form of jury selection, jury nullification should be avoided, as the lawyers would add this twist to their jury profiling
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Re: Jury Nullification
Thu, December 18, 2008 - 8:47 PM(nothing to add - except I thought this was interesting - thanks JSin !) -
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Unsu...
Re: Jury Nullification
Thu, December 18, 2008 - 9:15 PMThis is sort of besides the point, but I've been called for Jury duty no less than 5 times in 3 years...and deselected every single time so that my name goes back into the roster of eligible jurors at least twice a year now it seems. Anyway, now that I'm aware of this nullification strategy perhaps I'll try harder NOT to be deselected next time : )
-K
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