Nullification Resources
If you’re sitting on a jury and the facts and law require you to convict but your conscience requires you not to, you must follow your conscience and acquit. Here are some resources intended to educate you, as a juror, of this right:
The Fully Informed Jury Association
“Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine” by Clay Conrad
(Guest Blogger, I’m in Harris County. Is this enough to get me indicted as a party to perjury under your theory?)
About The Author
Great work on JN. It’s about time jurors realized their power over the process. Jury Nullification is a wonderful tool against misguided government.
I hope you continue to inform the public on this important topic.
And, Congrats on the Fark/Reason hit and run links.
Why am I not impressed by that particular group of websites?
No, just kidding. Those are no less reliable than the majority of websites you find out there. In fact, I want everyone reading this blog that I have SEEN THE LIGHT and had a complete change of heart! Jury nullification is our right as Americans and we should be proud of it! I fully intend (future conduct, michael) to start up a website devoted to this where I will sell t-shirts that read “NULLFIER ON THE LEFT” on the front and “IT’S OUR RIGHT” on the back. (I will also sell “QUESTION AUTHORITY” t-shirts and any others I can think of to boost sales in that demographic.) I would encourage anyone desiring to exercise their “rights” of jury nullifcation to print out the web resources Mark cited, bring them to jury selection while proudly wearing your t-shirt, and inform the judge and the attorneys that you are “fully informed” of your rights as a juror. Then they will know not to mess with you!!
To Mark,
Now that I have had my epiphany, I am changing my totalitarian ways. But I hope you know me well enough to realize that I would certainly have given you a courtesy call in the event of an indictment so that you could post a non-arrest bond.
Hey, to be sure you get all of us, why don’t you start asking all of your potential jurors if they know about their right to nullify.
Then you can get rid of all of those who do and be left with your ideal jury: 12 ignorant, obedient people who think the government can never be wrong.
When I got up to give my first closing argument, I thought I’d blown it and that my client was going to get hammered. But I closed pretty well and the jury hung. I’ll never the way the jury split: all the people “of color” walked to our side sympathetically and all the rest, the white folks, seemed upset. One lady even crossed the “line” and walked up to me and gave me a look of pure hate.
I was hooked.
So thanks for the info on jury nullification. I hope to create that look again.
I don’t like the term jury nullification, a prefer “reflecting the moral conscience of the community.”
With that said, I was talking today to a prosecutor today about a case she asked me how I thought I was going to win the case when my client readily admits he did the alleged offense. I responded quite simply, thinking of this post, “jury nullification,”