[Peace-discuss] Jury Nullification

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From The Progressive Review, edited by Sam Smith. --CGE]

	February 1, 2009
	LOCAL HEROES: JURY FREES MARIJUANA USER

Freedom's Phoenix - A rural Illinois jury has found one of their peers innocent
in a marijuana case that would have sent him to prison. Loren Swift was charged
with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, and he faced a mandatory
minimum of six years behind bars. According to Dan Churney at My Web Times,
several jurors were seen shaking Swift's hand after the verdict, a couple of
them were talking and laughing with Swift and his lawyer, and one juror slapped
Swift on the back.

The 59-year-old was arrested after officers from a state drug task force found
25 pounds of pot and 50 pounds of growing plants in his home in 2007. The
Vietnam veteran walks with a cane, has bad knees and feet and says he uses
marijuana to relieve body pain, as well as to help cope with post traumatic stress.

This jury exercised their right of jury nullification. Judges and prosecutors
never tell you this, but when you serve on a jury, it's not just the defendant
on trial. It's the law as well. If you don't like the law and think applying it
in this particular case would be unjust, then you don't have to find the
defendant guilty, even if the evidence clearly indicates guilt.

In jury nullification, a jury in a criminal case effectively nullifies a law by
acquitting a defendant regardless of the weight of evidence against him or her.
There is intense pressure within the legal system to keep this power under
wraps. But the fact of the matter is that when laws are deemed unjust, there is
the right of the jury not to convict.

Jury nullification is crucially important because until our national politicians
show some backbone on the issue of marijuana law reform, it's one of the only
ways to avoid imposing hideously cruel "mandatory minimum" penalties on
marijuana users who don't deserve to go to prison.

Prosecuting and jailing people for marijuana wastes valuable resources,
including court and police time and tax dollars. Hundreds of thousands of
otherwise productive, law-abiding people have been deprived of their freedom,
their families, their homes and their jobs. Let's save the jails for real
criminals, not pot smokers. . .

http://prorev.com/2009/02/local-heroes-jury-frees-marijuana-user.html


> E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> There are many unjust and misapplied laws in this country.
>> 
>> The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, higher 
>> than China, Albania, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union.
>> 
>> There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that the 
>> judicial-incarceration system is a racket that reaps zillions of dollars
>> and thousands of jobs and much power and influence.
>> 
>> I am very disturbed to see our brothers and sisters sent away and locked up
>>  for years because of a mindless judicial system and jurors who are 
>> misinformed.
>> 
>> I have started a blog page on the subject of how citizens can fight back
>> against the system and unjust laws and cruel and unusual punishments.
>> 
>> Jury Nullification - Right and Duty of Citizen Jurors. 
>> <http://www.liberty4urbana/drupal-6.8/node/96>