Jury Nullification Advocate Is Indicted

New York Times ^ | February 25, 2011 | BENJAMIN WEISER

[Second Amendment First]

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Since 2009, Mr. Heicklen has stood there and at courthouse entrances elsewhere and handed out pamphlets encouraging jurors to ignore the law if they disagree with it, and to render verdicts based on conscience.

That concept, called jury nullification, is highly controversial, and courts are hostile to it. But federal prosecutors have now taken the unusual step of having Mr. Heicklen indicted on a charge that his distributing of such pamphlets at the courthouse entrance violates the law against jury tampering. He was arraigned on Friday in a somewhat contentious hearing before Judge Kimba M. Wood, who entered a not guilty plea on his behalf when he refused to say how he would plead. During the proceeding, he railed at the judge and the government, and called the indictment “a tissue of lies.”

Mr. Heicklen insists that he never tries to influence specific jurors or cases, and instead gives his brochures to passers-by, hoping that jurors are among them.

But he feels his message must be getting out, or the government would not have brought charges against him.

“If I weren’t having any effect, would they do this?” said Mr. Heicklen, whose former colleagues recall him as a talented and unconventional educator. “You don’t have to be a genius to figure this thing out.”

Prosecutors declined to comment on his case, as did Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer who was assigned to assist Mr. Heicklen. (He is acting as his own lawyer.)

[Brass Lamp]

From article:

Jury Nullification Advocate Is Indicted...

I would guess that the Grand Jury was somehow not allowed to review the material at the very heart of the matter.

That concept, called jury nullification, is highly controversial, and courts are hostile to it. But federal prosecutors have now taken the unusual step of having Mr. Heicklen indicted on a charge that his distributing of such pamphlets at the courthouse entrance violates the law against jury tampering

Every civics course instructor up to the 1980s must have been engaged in jury tampering, since nullification used to be commonly taught.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Thanks. By “starstruck” I meant that Marsha Clark and that other guy became celebrities, not that they were partial to OJ. Like most gov’t employees, they were not so bright.

Not to be flippant about a guy getting away with murder, but I always thought real conservatives should celebrate this as a victory. 99% of the time, the state would've come in with their half-baked case and used their unlimited funds to get a conviction or a plea over some court-appointed newbie. This time, they got their hats handed to them by real lawyers. And even if Johnny Cochrane was a liberal, that's a good thing.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

You make a good case. Hypothetical: Unlawful to spit on sidewalk. Man spits on sidewalk. Sentence for same: 40 years hard labor. A person on the jury would be truly insane to bring a guilty verdict even though the man was guilty as hell.
There are laws this stupid out there.