The case of United States v. Thomas, 116 F.3d 606 (2d Cir. In fact, the pattern of jury nullification in alcohol prosecutions contributed to the adoption of the 21stAmendment, which repealed Prohibition. In that case, defendant members of the Catholic clergy had ransacked the offices of the Dow Chemical Company to protest the manufacturing of napalm.
Disagreement with a law, sympathy for a victim, feelings about a particular crime, or distaste for the defendant isn't supposed to prevent a jury from following the law and making a dispassionate evaluation of the defendant’s guilt or innocence. In 1997, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a juror's intent to nullify the law was Just Cause for dismissal from the jury.
1998. But a consistent pattern of acquittals for prosecutions of a certain offense can have the practical effect of invalidating a statute. Jury nullification is a discretionary act, and is not a legally sanctioned function of the jury. Should I just plead guilty and avoid a trial? [1999]). Starting in the early 1990s, a new wave of grass-roots promoters again brought the issue to the forefront, attempting this time to focus on legislation rather than on case law. First, in pre-revolutionary days, colonists lived under what they deemed an undemocratic, tyrannical government. A sanctioned doctrine of trial proceedings wherein members of a jury disregard either the evidence presented or the instructions of the judge in order to reach a verdict based upon their own consciences. Harvard Law Review 111. Case Western Reserve Law Review 50. [Juries] have the physical power to disregard the law, as laid down to them by the court. Although the court ruled that a juror's refusal to apply the relevant law was just cause for dismissal, only unambiguous evidence of the juror's deliberate disregard of the law (not apparent in this case) would justify such a dismissal. Several of Kriho's fellow jurors testified that during deliberations, she suggested to them that drug cases should be handled in the community rather than by a criminal justice system, and then advised them of their right to nullify. In addition, someone acquitted because of jury nullification cannot be tried again for the same crime because of the prohibition against double jeopardy. "Jury Nullification: Jurors Flex Their Muscles."
Jury nullification also occurs when a jury convicts a defendant because it condemns the defendant or his actions, even though the evidence at trial showed that he technically didn’t break any law. 1993. In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service. 1998. See U.S. v. Thomas, 116 F.3d 606 (2d Cir.
For example, all-white juries in the post-civil war South routinely convicted black defendants accused of sex crimes against white women despite minimal evidence of guilt.
Jury Nullification.
Case Western Reserve Law Review 43. Jury nullification occurs when a trial jury reaches a verdict that is contrary to the letter of the law because the jurors either: disagree with the law under which the defendant is prosecuted, or believe that the law shouldn’t be applied in the case at hand. Jury nullification is legal according to the U.S. Supreme Court, but whether or not juries need to be instructed on this right is a different matter. On the other hand, a conviction reached via nullification can be overturned on appeal or voided by a judge in some jurisdictions. However, jury verdicts of acquittal are unassailable even where the verdict is inconsistent with the weight of the evidence and instruction of the law. Creagan, M. Christine. There was also a practical side to granting juries such unyielding control of trials: early colonial judges were essentially laymen selected from among their peers, and they often knew no more law than did the jurors.
Concomitantly, the role of judges as those who decided issues of law became enmeshed with traditional trial procedure. Historic examples include the Alien and Seditions Acts, the Fugitive Slave Acts, and Prohibition.
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