Tuesday, March 23, 2010

What good is a law if no one will enforce it?

And how will you send people to jail if juries won't convict?

Jury nullification is the last recourse of citizens against an unjust law.

Open jury nullification in California (and likely in other states) will raise the ire of the judge, who has the power to find you in contempt of court. So whatever you do, don't vote 'not guilty' because you think it shouldn't be a law. However, if you vote 'not guilty' because you truly believe, despite the evidence to the contrary, he didn't do it, well then you can only be faulted for being a fool.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Beyond a reasonable doubt. All it takes is "I had a doubt".

Too bad the only people who seem to get selected to sit on a jury are people who don't exhibit independent thought. If I ever get called in (I'm 33 and have NEVER been called for jury duty!), I'm going to play stupid.