Posted on 02/25/2011 10:52:20 AM PST by Second Amendment First
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.
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.
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.
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