[Peace-discuss] on Jury Nullification

[E. Wayne Johnson]

The Fully Informed Jury Association/American Jury Institute 
<http://www.fija.org>
has a lot of resource materials.  Check it out.

Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> Yeah, it'd have to be really subtle...
>
> */"John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>/* wrote:
>
>
>     On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 11:43 PM, Jenifer Cartwright
>     <jencart13 at yahoo.com <mailto:jencart13 at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>             I guess the trick would be for the defense lawyer to
>             educate the jury AFTER they're selected and the trial is
>             underway.
>
>     This won't be allowed by the judge.
>
>      
>
>             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 <mailto: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
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20080610/8620b122/attachment.html