Free Republic

Brittany Monk's rapist received just 5 years of probation for repeatedly sexually assaulting her when she was a child. Baton Rouge, LA – A Louisiana man said he is “not sorry” that he murdered a man who raped his girlfriend when she was a child, because he believed that the justice system “failed” her. Jace Crehan, 23, admitted to having stabbed and strangled Robert Noce Jr., 47, less than two weeks after Noce was convicted for sexually assaulting Crehan’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Brittany Monk, the New York Daily News reported. A jury found Crehan guilty of the July 4, 2015 second-degree...

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a juror in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case said that after dozens of hours of grueling deliberations in a tiny room, 10 of the 12 jurors agreed he was guilty on two counts. On a third count, only one of the jurors believed he was guilty. The final, intractable votes on the first of the three counts was 10 to two to find Cosby guilty of digitally penetrating accuser Andrea Constand without her consent, the juror said. On the second count, that she was unconscious or unaware during the incident, the juror...

In a new wrinkle in the "black lives matter" movement, an editor of a top-rated legal website is calling on blacks to scare whites by automatically acquitting African-Americans accused of murdering or raping whites, no matter what the facts. On Above The Law, African-American editor Elie Mystal called for "jury nullification" by blacks when on juries in trials that focus on white victims. "Jury nullification would get white people's attention. Remember how pissed-off white people were about O.J.? And that was just one dude. White people would notice if black jurors simply refused to play along," he wrote.

Seven people involved in the anti-federal government occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge have been found not guilty of conspiring to impede federal workers from doing their jobs, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy. A jury found all seven remaining occupiers not-guilty of all charges except for one charge that has yet to be disclosed, KBOI reported.

Update at 4:10 p.m.: All defendants found not guilty.

The media are focused on the “Bundy Militia� angle to the standoff in Burns Oregon, where Aamon Bundy and brothers have taken over a Malheur Wildlife Refuge Headquarters to draw attention to the plight of the Hammond family (Full Complex Back Story Here).However, a little research (HatTip NeverTooLate) into the original legal battle reveals a rather startling update.Hammond Family The initial, and regarded by many as overreaching, federal prosecution resulted in a federal court judge Michael Hogan assigning a 3-month sentence and 1-year sentence for Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr (73) and his son, Steven Dwight Hammond (46) respectively.Even federal Judge...

Mitch Morrissey tried to imprison activists for passing out jury nullification pamphlets. Last August, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey charged two local activists, Mark Iannicelli and Eric Brandt, with seven felonies each for passing out jury nullification pamphlets at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse. Morrissey continued to pursue those charges even after conceding that such activity is protected by the First Amendment. When I asked Lynn Kimbrough, Morrissey's public information officer, what Iannicelli and Brandt had done that crossed the line from constitutionally protected speech to felonious jury tampering, she refused to say. That's probably because Morrissey had no case, as confirmed...

Mecosta County District Court Judge Peter Jaklevic is a former career prosecutor, like all righteous judges, and knows the purpose of jurors: to convict like they're told. So when Keith Wood — a wild-eyed former pastor and current lawless anarchist — began distributing seditious incitement to destroy the judicial system, Judge Peter Jaklevic knew just what to do: arrest him. " A 39-year-old former pastor was arrested and jailed in Mecosta County after he handed out fliers informing people about jury nullification in front of the county courthouse. " Keith Wood said he was handing out pamphlets from the Fully...

Jury nullification occurs when jurors choose not to convict a defendant they believe to be guilty of the offense charged, usually because they conclude that the law in question is unjust or the punishment is excessive. When I first thought about jury nullification as a young law student, I was inclined to be against it. Yes, it could potentially be used to curb unjust laws. But it can also be a vehicle for jury prejudice and bias. ... legal scholar Glenn Reynolds provides a strong defense of nullification. As he points out, the sort of discretion exercised by nullifying jurors...

A South Florida man charged with growing marijuana he claims he needs for a medical condition was found not guilty Monday. Jesse Teplicki, 50, had been charged with manufacturing cannabis and was facing up to five years behind bars. "This case is about medical marijuana and for the hundreds of thousands of patients who can use this medicine as an alternative," Teplicki said. It took jurors just 30 minutes to return the verdict.

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...