Fwd: Re: [Peace-discuss] on Jury Nullification

[ewj at pigs.ag]

Jennifer,
I see it as mass education, a kind of mental health project.  If we can infect enough people with the idea of  jury nullification, it will be pretty hard for the prosecuting attorney to get juries that dont have the constant worry of jury nullification embedded.  

This country has the highest encarceration rate in the world.  Higher than China and Russia.  And they dare to say that it is the land of the free? If it really is the home of the brave then we ought to be helping of enabling the idea of jury nullification to spread in our community.

Arlo still picks pretty good and he is at least as funny and cynical as he always was.  Maybe more so.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Fwd: Re: [Peace-discuss] on Jury Nullification
> From: Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
> Date: Mon, June 09, 2008 11:43 pm
> To: Peace-discuss List <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> 
> I guess the trick would be for the defense lawyer to educate the jury AFTER they're selected and the trial is underway. If members of the jury let on before they're selected that they're open to nullification, the prosecuting attorney won't accept them. Looks like The System wins again :-(
>    
>   Wow, Arlo Guthrie got old! Guess Alice's Restaurant came out quite awhile ago, huh. He still sings and plays purty durn good.
>    --Jenifer
> 
> ewj at pigs.ag wrote:
>   Randall, 
> Thanks for referencing the Wikipaedia --- Note the following ---
> 
> "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
> -- Thomas Jefferson.
> 
> During Prohibition, juries often nullified alcohol control laws, possibly as often as 60% of the time. This resistance is considered to have contributed to the adoption of the Twenty-first amendment repealing the Eighteenth amendment which established Prohibition. 
> 
> In the 21st century, many discussions of jury nullification center around drug laws that some consider unjust either in principle or because they are seen to discriminate against certain groups. 
> 
> A jury nullification advocacy group estimates that 3-4% of all jury trials involve nullification, and a recent rise in hung juries is seen by some as being indirect evidence that juries have begun to consider the validity or fairness of the laws themselves.
> 
> *
> The facts are that JURORS HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASSESS THE APPLICABILITY OF THE LAW, and 
> further that the JUDICIAL SYSTEM DOES NOT WANT THE PEOPLE TO HAVE THIS INFORMATION,
> because it would interfere with the power and the profits of the Legal-Judicial-Penal Industrial Complex,
> which has become a very big business indeed. 
> 
> There is absolutely no doubt that impoverished people and minorities do not receive the same treatment by the under the law as do rich people, and elites, and whites. This is a terrible injustice in our nation and in our communities.
> 
> If enough good people learn about Jury Nullification and the fact that so many American citizens have been imprisoned for non-violent offenses, there could be a dramatic reduction in prosecutions and eventual overturning of unjust laws and a reduction in unfair law enforcement.
> 
> These film clips from the 1990's are from an old TV show where Jury Nullification is discussed.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4GKG__B-s
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRdse8zBzyI
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbw8rF_hA9I
> 
> And some entertainment - Arlo Guthrie
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8DtpdXZi0M
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