Free Republic

While meditating on the concept of jury nullification .. I wondered ..

Advocates of jury nullification did their best to improve a bill expanding a jury’s ability to nullify laws, but the bill won’t be making it to a vote this session. House Bill 316, a bill by North Pole Republican Rep. Tammie Wilson, would expand and protect a jury’s right to judge the merits of a law, not just the facts before them, in a criminal case. The bill would allow defendants to argue their case based merits of the law, encouraging jurors to find them not guilty even in cases where evidence shows otherwise. It also would bar judges from...

Not all juries are created equal. These days, nowhere is that clearer than in New Hampshire. A bill introduced earlier this month in the Granite State's House of Representatives would require judges to tell juries in every criminal case that they are free to exercise a long-standing but controversial power called "nullification." That means jurors can vote to acquit defendants not only if they have reasonable doubt of guilt, but also if they simply don't agree with the underlying law. Juries in criminal cases in the U.S. have long had the power to acquit using the nullification principle. But New...

The response was predictable, even to those who had maintained hope for a different outcome. After the jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, many cities erupted into protests of what was perceived as a fundamentally unfair and racially-biased verdict that was the result of a broken justice system. Among those protesting that Zimmerman should be punished, some admitted that the flaw was actually found within the Florida law which departs significantly from the common law by allowing individuals who initiate confrontations to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to escape. Florida's Stand Your...

SAN DIEGO JURY ERASES 'STUPID' CHALK CHARGES [ ... major snippage] The judge, who imposed a gag order on participants during the trial, refused to allow Olson's attorney to argue that the messages were constitutionally protected free speech. [... snip]

Army veteran Nathan Haddad, who suffered a career-ending shoulder injury whilst trying to qualify for Special Forces, is facing a few other challenges. Five of them, to be precise: felony charges for possessing AR-15 magazines left over from his Army service. A politically ambitious and rabidly anti-veteran local prosecutor in New York State is pressing Haddad for a plea, threatening him with 35 years in prison for the magazines. Ironically, one of the supposed motivators for New York’s politicians to pass such draconian anti-magazine laws was the use of an AR to murder two firemen. The murderer was no novice:...

A Belknap County Superior Court jury cleared a Barnstead resident of a felony drug charge last week, siding with a defense lawyer who encouraged the jury to nullify the verdict on the grounds that the marijuana use was part of his Rastafarian religion. The decision on Thursday cleared Doug Darrell, 59, a piano tuner and woodworker, of manufacture of marijuana, a Class B felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of 3 1/2 to seven years. Under the principle of jury nullification, a jury can find a defendant innocent, even if prosecutors have proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. “It's...

A jury today acquitted a San Francisco man of felony charges that he beat up and abused the cleric he says brutally raped him decades ago. The jury found Will Lynch not guilty of felony elder abuse and felony assault for a confrontation with Rev. Jerold Lindner two years ago. It also found Lynch not guilty of misdemeanor elder abuse, but deadlocked 8-4 in favor of a conviction on misdemeanor assault. The verdict was a triumph for Lynch, now 44, and his supporters, who faithfully picketed outside and packed the Santa Clara County courtroom as the assault trial -- normally...

About a year ago, I was called upon by the county of Norfolk in Massachusetts to serve on a jury. I reported for jury duty at the District Court in Quincy, Mass. Before the selection process, in which I was not picked, I, along with my fellow potential jurists, was shown a film that was supposed to inform me of my responsibilities as a jurist. This film was misleading to say the least. Through vagaries and sophistic sleight of hand, the film, which involved instructions from a local judge, prosecutor, and lawyer, left the impression, without a direct statement, that...

Prosecutors in New York City have decided that the dissemination of truth near American courthouses threatens to rock the very foundations of the American legal system. For years, retired Penn State chemistry professor Julian Heicklen has handed out literature to passersby in front of the Manhattan courthouse, informing them of the rights of jurors. As stated by the Fully Informed Jury Association, “the primary function of the independent juror is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical abuses of power by government.” And as...

SEATTLE - A bizarre drama that began last summer with a bucket of human excrement thrown at a local woman has ended with a "not guilty" verdict in the trial of the man accused of throwing it. The verdict has left the woman, Cheri Monson, in shock and in tears - and in utter disbelief over the jury's decision. The incident took place last August when Monson was walking up the stairwell to her apartment at a South Seattle public housing complex near Beacon Hill. That's when 70-year-old Ronald V. Ellis, who lived in a neighboring unit, came out and...

* 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...

Jurors today shot down the DA’s hunt for a Florida man, and acquitted him on a felony rap for coming into New York packing heat..........

With O.J. Simpson giving his agreement from prison, a judge approved a plan Monday to donate the suit the former NFL star was wearing when he was acquitted of murder to the Smithsonian Institution. The deal ends a 13-year legal battle between Simpson's former sports agent Mike Gilbert and Fred Goldman, the father of the man Simpson was accused of killing in 1994. Both men claimed the right to the suit, shirt and tie Simpson was wearing Oct. 3, 1995, when he was acquitted of killing ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman after a trial that riveted...

The government is going to be in a position where it either has to defend the process that brought the Sheikh to court or seek ways to prevent these issues from arising. However, because Mr. Obama promised that Mr. Mohammed would enjoy the most exacting demands of justice, they probably will be given a full airing. We await a further explanation from the president to clarify how this makes the country safer, particularly if Mr. Mohammed leaves New York a free man.

Federal law now criminalizes activities that the average person would never dream would land him in prison. ---------------------------cut--------------------------- Every year, thousands of upstanding, responsible Americans run afoul of some incomprehensible federal law or regulation and end up serving time in federal prison. What is especially disturbing is that it could happen to anyone at all -- and it has. We should applaud Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), then, for holding a bipartisan hearing today to examine how federal law can make a criminal out of anyone, for even the most mundane conduct. --------------------------------------cut------------------ This is an inevitable...

Jury Nullification and the 2nd Amendment A Program For Rights Restoration Copyright 2007, Guy Smith Introduction “ . . . it is not only [the juror’s] right, but his duty, to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.” John Adams, 1771 You have the ability to overturn any anti-gun law you want. All it takes is a bit of knowledge and a seat on a jury. In our legal system, juries have a power known as “nullification”. This means that any single juror may refuse...

In the comments to yesterday's jury nullification piece (yes, I read your comments) Smitty was especially on-point when he said, "The real problem might be toleration, or more accurately, the lack of it. We wish our preferred freedoms to be respected, while applauding governmental crackdowns upon those freedoms we dislike or are indifferent to." Frankly that's been an ongoing hurdle in the effort to preserve and extend liberty. Until pot-smokers and gun owners and low-taxers and sexual minorities recognize that liberty is indivisible and that we're all in this together, we're going to be picked off piecemeal by government officials...

A green British jury has perverted an ancient legal right, using it to excuse eco-terrorism. As The Independent reports: The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage. Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate...

 . . . and that's a GOOD thing. From FIJA.org:Jury Rights Day Press Release:Jury Rights Day September 5, 2008 This Friday, September 5, 2008, marks the 338th anniversary of the day when jurors refused to convict William Penn of violating England's Conventicle Acts, despite clear evidence that he acted illegally by preaching a Quaker sermon. In refusing to convict Penn, the jurors refused to enforce what they knew to be an unjust law. This is known as jury nullification. By refusing to enforce what they knew was an unjust law, the Penn jurors not only served justice, but provided a...

To grasp why the Bill of Rights leads off by barring Congress from "establishing" any religion, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," you must understand that in 18th century England there was no "separation of church and state." The English monarch to this day includes in her title "Fidele Defensor" -- Defender of the Faith. Which helps explain why even our right to a jury trial stems directly from this era. In 1670, it was declared illegal to hold a religious gathering or preach a sermon in England which was not a "Church of England" sermon. Dissident churches, including the...

Panelists claim woman wouldn't consider evidence, accused them of racism - The sole black juror on a panel deadlocked along racial lines lied to win a seat on the jury and then set out to exact revenge on law enforcement by serving as the spoiler in the trial of an alleged drug chief serving as his own lawyer, some of her fellow jurors said Monday.Jurors in the trial of Johnnie "Bro" Martin walked out of U.S. District Court with nothing to show for nine days of work but a mistrial. "She made a mockery of the system," one juror said...

Terror Financing: After the Holy Land Foundation case ended in a mistrial, Muslim groups cheered and scolded the U.S. for a witch hunt. But defendants got some help from the inside.t turns out that a Hamas-sympathizing juror sabotaged the biggest terror-funding case in U.S. history by bullying jurors who favored convictions. According to interviews conducted since the October mistrial, juror William Neal intimidated colleagues into voting for acquittals of Holy Land leaders accused of funneling millions to Hamas suicide bombers and their families. Neal, a Dallas graphic artist who voted not guilty across the board, launched into obscenity-laced tirades against...

Its time for Americans to take a stand against the attacks on our individual, natural rights. Jury nullification is the way to do it.

The government will retry a prominent marijuana advocate on cultivation charges even though he faces no punishment if convicted, beyond the one day in jail he's already served, a federal prosecutor said today. Prosecutors decided on a second trial for Ed Rosenthal after a "thorough and careful review,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer... Defense lawyer Shari Greenberger said she would ask Breyer to order the government to reimburse Rosenthal for the time his lawyers spent getting the new charges dismissed.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox said Tuesday it will air a two-part interview with O.J. Simpson at month's end in which he describes the 1994 murders of his ex-wife and her friend that he says he didn't commit. The interview will be conducted by editor and book publisher Judith Regan. On November 30, her Regan Books is publishing a book Simpson wrote with the working title "If I Did It, Here's How It Happened." Fox said Simpson's book "hypothetically describes" how he would have committed the murders. The special will air at 9 p.m. November 27 and 29 on...

<p>BRIDGEPORT, Conn. --A Fairfield lawyer has been charged with stabbing his neighbor to death after learning the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter, police said.</p> <p>Fairfield authorities said attorney Jonathon Edington leaped through 58-year-old Barry James' bedroom window Monday and stabbed him nearly a dozen times in the chest. Edington, 29, was arraigned on murder and burglary charges Tuesday in Bridgeport Superior Court. He was held on $1 million bond and is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 12.</p>

Just flashed on Fox, jury has a verdict, to be read at 4:30PM EST!

Playing the race card may inhibit true justice in Durham alleged rape case by DANIEL T. ZANOZA Over a decade ago, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of a double murder. Though most of the evidence seemed to indicate Simpson had brutally killed his wife and her friend, a jury--compromised mostly of African-Americans--set him free and created a new debate concerning the future of America's justice system. Simpson's skillful lawyers played the race card in his trial and a new term became known to the American public: Something called "jury nullification" reared its ugly head in the process in what...

Should be entertaining...starting any minute.

Just breaking...

Last night, during a "Law and Order" episode, the 'judge' said that juror annullment was illegal.

If KRS-ONE were merely an isolated imbecile, he would not be worth any bandwidth. But he is widely recognized as one of hip-hop's most outspoken and respected intellectuals. Has sedition become a civil right?In my previous column on pro-Al Qaeda rapper KRS-One (Kris Parker; hereafter, "KOP"), I cited the Daily News story from "Rush & Molloy's" gossip column (the husband-and-wife team of George Rush and Joanna Molloy) that quoted him as having "cheered" when Al Qaeda attacked America and murdered 3,000 people on 911, liberally quoted from KOP's rap/Hip-Hop (r/h) "songs," and discussed r/h's ties to black supremacist movements such...

In my previous column on pro-Al Qaeda rapper KRS-One (Kris Parker; hereafter, “KOP”), I cited the Daily News story from “Rush & Molloy’s” gossip column (the husband-and-wife team of George Rush and Joanna Molloy) that quoted him as having “cheered” when Al Qaeda attacked America and murdered 3,000 people on 911, liberally quoted from KOP’s rap/Hip-Hop (r/h) “songs,” and discussed r/h’s ties to black supremacist movements such as the Nation of Islam, the Five Percenters, and the New Black Panther party. Rap’s Treasonous Roots The longtime leader of the Nation of Islam, “the Honorable Elijah Muhammad” (Elijah Poole; 1897-1975), spent...

The Ins and Outs of Jury Nullificationby Jean F. Drew If a juror accepts as the law that which the judge states then that juror has accepted the exercise of absolute authority of a government employee and has surrendered a power and right that once was the citizen’s safeguard of liberty, -- for the saddest epitaph which can be carved in the memory of a vanished liberty is that it was lost because its possessors failed to stretch forth a saving hand while yet there was time. -- Thomas Jefferson The Framers of the Constitution of the United States were...

With no evidence placing a teenager at the scene of his pregnant 14-year-old girlfriend's grisly murder, prosecutors left jurors with no choice but to acquit the 22-year-old man who admitted watching Chauntae Renee Jones die, one distraught juror said last night. ``We had to keep reminding ourselves he's innocent unless we can prove otherwise,'' the juror, who did not wish to be identified, told WCVB-TV (Ch. 5). ``It's not that he's not guilty and it's not that the defense won, it's that the prosecution couldn't make the case.'' The juror said the decision to acquit Kyle Bryant in the murders...

District Judge Susan Criss sets Durst's bail at two billion dollars -- with a "B". One Billion for each charge. Durst made an audible gasp in Court when he heard the amount. Defense attorneys threated to appeal to a higher court.

Mistrial is declared in tax case FORT WORTH - Bedford businessman Richard Simkanin remained in federal custody Tuesday night after jurors said they could not reach a verdict on a 27-count indictment accusing him of failing to withhold taxes from his employees' wages and of filing fraudulent claims for tax refunds. U.S. District Judge John McBryde declared a mistrial after jurors said they were deadlocked after eight hours of deliberations. Prosecutors said they would retry Simkanin, 59, who couched his opposition to federal income tax in the patriotic language of the Founding Fathers, publicly declared his contempt for the federal...

Senator Richard J. Durbin (D., Ill.) is 58 years old and a graduate of Georgetown Law School. He has been in federal elected office for more than 20 years. His official duties include appointments on his chamber's Judiciary Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and the Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as about a dozen subcommittees. His demeanor is serious, sober and focused. So why does Durbin want juries to ignore federal law? Durbin is currently seeking cosponsors for a bill that allows federal juries to be informed when defendants facing medical marijuana charges...

<p>GOLDEN, Colo. - A county treasurer is handing out booklets to potential jurors saying they are answerable "only to God almighty" and not to the law when it comes to deliberations.</p> <p>Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall, a former state lawmaker known for his anti-abortion and pro-gun views, said the booklets are "my personal gift to the people." He said the booklets, many stamped with his name and elected title, were bought with $500 to $600 of his money and that of two political allies who work in the treasurer's office.</p>

<p>Race is less important than factors such as occupation, education or family background when Jacksonville lawyers select jurors for criminal trials, according to a yearlong Times-Union study.</p> <p>Blacks made up about a quarter of prospective juror panels and the juries themselves in Duval County during 97 felony trials -- in line with the 2000 census data.</p>

Terrorism is not confined to foreigners who murder Americans abroad, hijack airliners and crash them into American skyscrapers, or send anthrax-laced letters through the U.S. Postal Service. Likewise, terrorism's supporters are not limited to foreign leaders and the U.N. Terrorism lives on the streets of America's cities, and is robustly supported by American activists, elected officials, and by the mainstream, American media. The main form such domestic terrorism takes, is a war on the law-abiding populace by criminals. The supporters of such terror, have focused their efforts on handcuffing white, urban police officers, so that urban terrorists may have license...

A RIGHT OF JURY NULLIFICATION IN SOUTH DAKOTA? Why Amendment A Should Be Rejected On next month's ballot, the voters of South Dakota will have the opportunity to amend a portion of their state constitution. Amendment A, if adopted, will permit a defendant in a criminal case to make a novel argument to her jury. She can, if she chooses, admit that she is guilty as charged but ask the jury to acquit her anyway, because the law that she violated is wrong or unduly harsh. This Amendment might seem attractive or relatively minor at first blush. But upon closer...

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A measure on the South Dakota ballot this November would allow defendants to tell juries they can disregard a law if they don't like it — a prospect that has the legal profession aghast. Amendment A would let people accused of crimes argue that a law should not apply to their circumstances or that is has no merit. The practice is known as jury nullification. The proposed amendment to the South Dakota Constitution was put on the ballot after more than 34,000 signatures were gathered by a group that includes at least one advocate of legalizing...

Our old friend jury nulification is back. For those people who have not heard of jury nulification it is the doctrine that a jury has the right to judge, not just the &ldquo;facts of the case&rdquo;, but THE LAW as well. All the Founding Fathers of the United States believed in this doctrine, but it tends to make modern legal folk froth with rage - things like the &ldquo;war on drugs&rdquo; might get into some difficulty if jury nulification makes a come back. This November in South Dakota an amendment to the Constitution of the State will be on the...

Amid concerns that protesters outside Sacramento's federal courthouse could compromise the prosecution's case against the operator of a Chico medical marijuana dispensary, a federal judge has ordered that jurors be transported to his courtroom from an undisclosed, remote location before each session. This week's two days of peaceful protests were spurred by U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr.'s decision denying defendant Bryan James Epis the use of a medical marijuana defense, in which Epis alleged federal offenses could be lessened by the circumstances in which they were committed. In this case: compassion, supporters say. "Us patients are out here...

<p>Jurors delivered a stunning compromise verdict yesterday in the execution-like slaying of Aliquippa police officer James Naim, convicting one suspect of third-degree murder and acquitting the other of all charges.</p> <p>They found Jamie M. Brown, 24, guilty of a reduced murder charge, even though Naim was shot twice in the head at close range as he walked his beat.</p>