[Peace-discuss] what about jury nullification?

[C. G. Estabrook]

The Simpson decision was not a case of jury nullification (i.e., the 
jury did not say that Simpson was guilty under the law but that the law 
was substantially unjust).  The jury (correctly, I think) said that they 
  could not convict Simpson on the basis of the tainted evidence 
presented to them.  What seems to have happened is that the LAPD 
concocted evidence in an attempt to railroad a guilty man.  --CGE

Ron Szoke wrote:
> This needs some clarification.  Surely a jury cannot "nullify" a law in the sense of 
> erasing or obliterating it.  But it can protest the way the law has been applied (or 
> misapplied) in a particular case by voting "not guilty" & attempting to persuade 
> others in the jury room that this is the appropriate thing to do in the 
> circumstances.  This is sometimes the only thing available that may rein in an 
> overzealous & out-of-control prosecutor.
> 
> Like all other correctives, it is at times subject to abuse, as the cases of all-white 
> southern juries or the O.J. Simpson jury show.  They too could claim that they were 
> representing "the conscience of the community," or at least an influential segment 
> of it.
> 
> -- Ron Szoke
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