Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 08/04/2008 4:13:34 PM PDT by average american student
I was called for jury duty for a drunk driving case. The defense attorney tried to bamboozle the jury pool by claiming the gas chromatography used to measure his clients blood alcohol level was inaccurate. When he asked me, I told him he was flat out wrong. I had performed that measurement in the lab many times in college with accuracy orders of magnitude better than what he was feeding to the persons assembled. We all left the room when I finished with him. I wasn't seated on the jury. The defendant was convicted of driving with a .27 blood alcohol. He was an aide to a city councilman. The officer who cited him noted he was weaving across 4 lanes of traffic at 2 AM.
Winmill is a frequent object of derisive remarks about his judicial behavior in southeast Idaho. He is held in lower esteem than the 9th circuit.
Finding a defendant not guilty is a far less dangerous thing than nullifying a law.
You can safely find even the most obviously guilty man innocent and get away with it.
God help you if you try to tell the judge the law itself is unconstitutional. If he lets that stand, they will have lost a tool to persecute anyone at will.
EXCELLENT!!!!
You can safely find even the most obviously guilty man innocent and get away with it...
I think we are in agreement in a roundabout sort of way. As you stated, a juror can judge innocence or guilt based on their view of the law and the circumstances of the case, or on any criteria they want. That's all the judge needs to know.
Even if the juror bases their decision on a view that the law is unjust, or is being unjustly applied (as is described in all the jury nullification texts I have read) all the judge needs to know is the truth that the verdict was rendered based on the jurors view of the law and the circumstances of the case.
I was speaking of the EPA maggots who pursued this scary case.
Ping.
Which would be about the time *I* would give a pointed reminder to His/Her "Honor" that it wasn't "their" court to begin with...
the infowarrior
Similiar thing going on here only in reverse. A man made drainage ditch, probably done by the CCC can not be cleaned out here. They were dug to drain the marshes and get rid of the mosquitos—worked really well. Hell hath no fury like an NC cloud of skeeters/no see ums. Used to be we could dynamite the ditches or dredge. EPA stopped that. Our creek, which you used to be able to get an 18 foot shrimp boat in/out of at low tide, is barely passable at high tide with anything larger than a canoe.
The less you use it, the more marsh grass grows. Try removing one blade of that and see what happens. They even do flyovers and compare old pics with new ones. While they’re so busy protecting the damn marsh grass, the canals and rivers are filling in at an alarming rate. What used to be a thriving oyster growing/harvesting community is almost devoid of life, thnaks to the 3 feet or better of MUD that covers the sandy bottom.
And to top it off, everything is the FARMER’S fault. A few years ago they tried to convince us that E Coli in the water was caused by a few cows some poor farmer was trying to raise. One of the more outspoken locals asked, “What about the deer?” No, no, no. That kind of problem is caused by domestic livestock.
Shaking head. We’re regulating ourelves into oblivion.
On a side note, they just caught some guy in RAleigh for getting married for the third time—only problem was—he “forgot” to obtain divorces first. Even had the gall to wear the same suit. Someone asked, “Don’t they keep records of that stuff?” BWAHAHA
The "theory" of jury nullification is that if juries all over start acquitting on the basis of an unjust law or a law being applied unjustly , perhaps the legislature will "get the message". But an individual acquittal on the basis of an unjust law or a law being applied unjustly does not make the law not the law anymore nor does it compel any other jury to acquit those charged under that law.
Think about it, why would a judge give a chit if some perp got off?
#1 we have it pounded into our heads from grade school that "it is better to let 10 guilty men go than convict one innocent man".
#2 hizonner routinely dispenses wrist slaps and suspended sentences anyway.
But eliminate a law? Bad, very bad.
Three branches of government:
Legislative - Makes the laws
Executive - Administers the laws
Judicial - Insures validity of the laws
The courts have the authority to overturn the laws. Judges are very jealous of this power, and forget that a sworn jury shares a thin sliver of the same power the Supreme Court holds.
We The People aren't part of the club...
I suggest perusing the Jury Nullification site or the Wikipedia entry on Jury Nullification:
Will do.
Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve learned something and/or been forced to change my opinions on FR.
God I love this place...
Thanks!
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
“Last couple of times I got called for jury duty the judges said they would not tolerate any of this jury nullification nonsense in their courts.”
How would they know and what can they do? I am asking in all seriousness because I am very ignorant on this subject. Thanks for your help.
(This is what I love about FR!)
“Except that jury nullification would mean that no one else could ever be persecuted prosecuted under that particular law again.”
OK, I am even more ignorant than I thought. Can you better explain jury nullificaton to me? My original understanding was that it was finding a defendent not guilty, regardless of the evidence.
It looks to me as if this began with the Bush administration granting the EPA new authority. If true, I'm disgusted, but sadly not surprised.
The simple explanation is that I was wrong and you are right.
Sorry. I can’t make it simpler than that...
;^P
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