About
Content
Store
Forum

Rebirth of Reason
War
People
Archives
Objectivism

Post to this threadMark all messages in this thread as readMark all messages in this thread as unread


Post 0

Saturday, September 5, 2015 - 9:05pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit

    I am currently interested in writing a commentary article on the issue of Jury Nullification. This issue has been brought up more than once in the forums and maybe even in an article, but there are some points that I wish to argue in my own article. My position is to distinguish the common law powers of the jury from civil disobedience.

 

    As I see it, when a jury returns a not-guilty verdict when the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt committed the act (be cause the act is not wrong or at least should not be punished by the law), the jury is refusing to take part in an unjust act. The jury is not changing the law or exercising some special power, but instead delegitimizing the law by refusing to take part in its enforcement. Therefore, it should not be referred to as "jury nullification", as the jury doesn't actually have the power to nullify or veto anything.

 

    Its should be very clear that a jury cannot be punished for returning a verdict that the judge, or anyone else, didn't like. The true issue is, should a judge allow parties to a case encourage the jury to vote on their "conscience" or take the actions necessary to maintain the jury as a "finder of facts". I will be arguing for the latter. Can anyone tell me if this has been argued before in the forum and where?



Post 1

Saturday, September 5, 2015 - 11:24pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit

Liam,

 

Part way down the home page, in the left-hand column, there is a search box.  If you select the radio button below it that restricts the seach to this site only, then type "nullification" into the search box (without the quote marks) and hit the Enter button you'll get about 6 returns for Jury Nullification (plus a few nullifications that don't refer to juries).



Post 2

Sunday, September 6, 2015 - 11:42amSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit

Thank you Steve. I am new to the UI so thank you very much.



Post 3

Sunday, September 6, 2015 - 5:01pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit

My pleasure, Liam.  I'll be interested to hear what you think. 

 

Jury nullification is something that has changed over time.  The "establishment" appears to dislike it, and want to hide it away these days, but as I understand it, that wasn't always the case.



Post 4

Thursday, September 17, 2015 - 6:39pmSanction this postReply
Bookmark
Link
Edit

     Now that some time has gone by and I am more occupied then I thought I would be, I might just make a forum post and discuss my thoughts on the issue. Maybe if I have enough from that, I'll write an article. I have yet to post an article on Rebirth of Reason and have little article experience otherwise.



Post to this thread


User ID Password or create a free account.