“and Big Brother will be watching you and me—ready to punish the “wrong” thoughts”
Don’t plea bargain. Demand a jury trial. Ever heard of jury nullification? Juries don’t have to enforce a law they think is unjust. Its a last ditch protection given us by our Republic’s founding fathers.
http://www.fija.org/
Yes I have, but I doubt that even 5% of the potential jury pool has. But if it's mentioned in a courtroom the judge will usually lie and tell the jurors they have to base their decision strictly on the evidence and imply that they will be punished somehow if they decide to nullify the law in question.
I know whereof I speak because I saw and heard that happen when I was a prospective juror at a trial in FL for a man charged with pot possession. We were questioned by both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer before th trial got underway about our thoughts regarding the drug law that the defendant was accused of breaking. When one of the jurors expressed doubts about the constitutionality of the law in question he was dismissed from the jury. Then the judge proceeded to sternly lecture the rest of us that we were not allowed to question the constitutionality of the law that the defendant was accused of breaking, but only whether of not the accused had broken it. He didn't threaten us directly, but he definitely gave the impression that we would be asking for trouble if we didn't do as he said.
I was so disgusted by his implied threat that I resolved then and there that the defendant was not going to be convicted by a unanimous decision even if I believed he was guilty. I still don't know how the judge thought he could read our minds and see what we actually based our decision on. Maybe he thought he was omniscient like God is, at least that was the impression I got.
BTW, I didn't have to decide anyway because the trial was delayed and then rescheduled, and when it came up again I was not in the jury pool. I heard later that the accused man was found not guilty.